More than 3000 delegates from 35 countries flocked to the Mass Timber Conference in Portland, Oregon.

This is unbelievable … mass timber has arrived.

The conference in its 7th year has grown from its humble beginnings of around 250 attending.

The topics this year were diverse, covering the entry of minority groups into mass timber design to developers’ perspective on mass timber.

The developer of the 25-storey Ascent building in Milwaukee summed it up:

They are using wood in their tallest timber project, not because they are wood fans, but it gave a record rental rate of return.

Designed by Korb + Associates Architects, the skyscraper was built in just under two years after breaking ground in August 2020.

The architecture studio’s design for the tower was informed by biophilic design.

Even this old timber engineer learnt something.

The exhibition was also fantastic.

So many mass timber suppliers and associated businesses offered services and products to make mass timber use easy.

There was even a demonstration of mass timber being installed and because it was mass timber it went up quickly.

A highlight of the conference was an axe-throwing demonstration that started open when the beer was being served.

Nothing could go wrong with that mix.

Freres Mass Plywood Panels

One of the finds of the trip was Mass Plywood Panels (MPP). This is a veneer based cross-laminated timber (CLT).

Maybe if CLT was developed in north America, CLT would have looked like MPP.

Anyhow, MPP is a 25mm lamella used to construct the panels.

Each lamella is constructed of 9 layers of 3.7mm veneer.

These thin layers are engineered and oriented to enhance the natural strength and dimensional stability of the wood.

Floor, roof and wall panels can be manufactured as large as 3.6m wide and 14.6m long.

Panels thicknesses are available in 25 mm increments from 50mm to 300mm.

A Global Mass Timber Community

As a guest of the American Plywood Association and the American Agricultural Service, the highlight of the event for me was the networking.

Meeting colleagues from around the world and some from home.

Colleagues talked about sharing experiences and resources.

Amanda Sturgeon CEO from the Build by Nature summed it up.

Amanda said that different regions of the world where at different stages of their mass timber journey and facing different challenges at different time.

Cooperation between the regions can help mass timber grow even further.

The Timber Off-Site Construction conference, which will be hosted in Melbourne, Australia 11 and 12 September 2023, provides an ideal opportunity for the community to build on the momentum from Portland.

The theme for 2023 is “Timber & Technology – The Zero Carbon Future” and will build on the themes discussed in a number of the conferences keynote presentations.

The conference is now accepting partnership, sponsorship and exhibition proposals and before registrations open up for delegates.

We can’t wait to see you in Melbourne!

• Wood Central will have exclusive updates from Andrew Dunn, including innovations and site visits, throughout the day.

Countries represented, including Australia, were Chile, Columbia, Panama, Mexico, Taiwan and Uruguay.

The purpose of the tour was to expose participants to American engineered wood products.

The well-managed tour kept the focus on the purpose of the trip and highlights for me were buildings under construction in Seattle.

You just don’t know the impact of mid-rise timber construction in the US if you don’t visit Seattle.

Looking across the hills of this seaport city on the West Coast, the distinctive yellow exterior plasterboard cladding (Densglass) covering timber-framed buildings hits you.

They are everywhere, and I mean everywhere! We passed 10 projects to get to one project.

Nonetheless, the APA team had us sorted. The first was a ‘5 over 2’ podium, meaning two storeys of concrete with five storeys of timber over. The project was a classic timber framed apartment building, with sawn timber throughout.

Why timber? Well, it’s just cheaper, evidenced by all the yellow-cladded buildings under construction.

Our next building was an office structure sitting over, of all things, a lumber storage yard.

And. even more freaky, it was Dunn Company’s wood!

This building, intended to support laboratories with sensitive microscopes, was your traditional post and beam system with a concrete screed for acoustic and vibration control. The project was nicely done, well looked after in a city where it seems to be constantly raining.

Our final inspection was a low-rent apartment building made from CLT, the difference being a post and beam system was used to support the CLT floor, and it was left exposed.

The tiny apartments were offset by the beauty of wood.

The building had a mixture of timber; even mass plywood panels were used for the staircases. MPP is sticking its head up everywhere!

The highlight for me was the project’s manager who said the wood used in the project took just four minutes to grow!

Also, that he had been inundated with prospective buyers for the project.

Seattle is certainly an excellent and vibrant city. It embraced timber as the normally way of building … and life.

I dream that we will one day be the same.