INNOVATION March-April 2018

“This is a very exciting time for timber engineering,” Tannert says. “The soon-to-be-completed Wood Innovation Research Laboratory makes UNBC an ideal partner for innovative companies such as FPInnovations, BC Passive House, and Equilibrium Consulting. Bringing together industry and academia is a great way to fuel innovation and solve significant industry problems here in BC.” Given the importance and size of the province’s forestry industry, advances in this sector have the potential to have a huge impact on the way British Columbians live and work. “What I love most about the type of work we do is to see the projects that we’re working on live forever or for a very long time,” says Malczyk. “That’s what’s so unique about what we’re doing and why innovation isn’t just shaping our world today, but it’s laying the groundwork for our future too.” j The BC Innovation Council’s Ignite program awards money to groundbreaking innovation and research projects in the natural resources and applied science sectors. Projects tackling a demonstrated industry problem in BC could be eligible for up to $300,000 in funding. More information can be found at bcic.ca/ignite .

Dr. Thomas Tannert, P.Eng. and Canada Research Chair in Hybrid Wood Structures Engineering at UNBC in Prince George, has teamed up with Robert Malczyk, P.Eng., of BC Passive House and Equilibrium Consulting on a project that aims to change how commercial structures are built. “In Canada, we see more and more residential structures being built out of wood, and what we want to do with our research project is to change the way we build commercial buildings,” says Tannert. “We’re developing super-insulated, prefabricated mass- timber panels for exterior applications.” The panels will result in quicker development times and lower costs for buildings. Tannert and Malczyk’s work has caught the eye of several funding agencies and investors, including the BC Innovation Council, which awarded the group $110,000 through its Ignite program. Ignite provides provincial government funding to industry-driven research projects in the natural resources and applied science sectors that significantly benefit BC residents. Tall mass-timber buildings—where the primary, load-bearing structure is made up of solid or composite wood—are gaining popularity in Canada and the US. However, building larger-timber structures creates some challenges, specifically the lateral forces created by high winds and seismic events, which exert higher uplift forces on the buildings. To mitigate these forces, Tannert and Dr. Marjan Popovski, P.Eng., a principal scientist at FPInnovations, are working on another BCIC Ignite–funded project that would ensure tall mass-timber buildings are designed properly for areas where there’s a greater chance of seismic activity occurring. “These forces need to be taken by efficient connections, referred to as ‘hold-downs,’” explains Popovski. “We’re developing a novel and innovative hold-down solution for mass- timber structures that will not only satisfy seismic performance demands, but also be able to dissipate the energy imparted on the building during a seismic event, and it will do so without damaging the wood component to which it connects.” Tannert and Popovski—who received $88,000 in BCIC Ignite funding for the project and have secured an additional $25,000 from Forestry Innovation Investment—know their research has the potential to change the way wooden structures are built not just in BC but all over the world. At UBC Vancouver, the Brock Commons student residence is the world’s tallest hybrid timber structure, at 18 storeys. The building was completed four months ahead of schedule, in less than 70 days once the prefabricated components arrived at the construction site, demonstrating the time and financial benefits of this process. There are a number of all-wood building projects under discussion in Europe, including a 304-metre-tall skyscraper in London that would be over 200 metres higher than Brock Commons.

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