Data showing a sharp rise in the use of innovative wood building systems was reinforced with an announcement from WoodWorks (US) – Wood Products Council highlighting the winners of its US Wood Design Awards. Source: Timberbiz
“The WoodWorks award program celebrates excellence in wood building design, and excellent projects are often conceived and executed by people with a passion, not only for quality, but innovation,” WoodWorks President and CEO, Jennifer Cover said.
“As a result, the winning projects are a kind of bellwether for market trends—such as growing interest in mass timber, hybrid projects that combine mass timber with light wood framing or other materials, panelization, and greater focus on sustainability, carbon footprint, and resilience. These are all things we’re seeing in the market that are also reflected in this year’s winning projects.”
For example, in addition to tracking mass timber buildings completed and in design, WoodWorks has seen a significant rise in requests for technical assistance, which is provided at no cost to project teams.
“In 2015, our technical team assisted on a handful of mass timber projects. The number jumped to 159 in 2016—and 266 last year. You can see a parallel in many of the winning projects,” Ms Cover said.
Awards in 10 categories are to be presented at Wood Design Symposiums across the country, beginning with the Texas Wood Design Symposium in Houston on 25 February, 2020. Nine projects will also receive regional excellence awards.
For descriptions of the winning projects, visit the WoodWorks online gallery www.woodworks.org/project-gallery/
