Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Market Updates - May 2025 - Week Twenty
The sustainable building revolution is gathering unstoppable momentum as mass timber construction projects continue to emerge worldwide. This week's update brings you the cutting edge of timber innovation, showcasing how this remarkable material is transforming architecture and construction practices across continents.
Finland's Honka has unveiled their groundbreaking Fusion Plus CLT system—the culmination of 22 years of dedicated research. This non-settling solution enables ambitious ecological wood construction with enhanced environmental credentials and technical efficiency. Meanwhile, the prestigious RIBA Awards have recognized two outstanding mass timber projects: the magnificent Spencer Building at Worth School with its generous windows and beautiful timber interior, and the Greenhill building at Harrow Arts Centre, which has already transformed community engagement through thoughtful design.
Across the Atlantic, Yellowknife is breaking ground on a forward-thinking 50-unit public housing development that leverages mass timber for rapid assembly and incorporates biomass heating for maximum sustainability. Scotland's Mass Timber Centre for Excellence celebrates a decade of challenging misconceptions and developing UK-grown timber solutions that rival European imports. And in a significant milestone for American adoption, the University of Pennsylvania has completed Philadelphia's first mass timber building—a sleek new facility for their data science and AI programs. Each of these developments signals a broader shift toward sustainable construction methods that prioritize both environmental responsibility and design excellence.
Want to stay at the forefront of the mass timber revolution? Subscribe to our podcast, explore our academic journal, and join our community of forward-thinking building professionals who are reshaping the future of construction one timber project at a time.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are live. This is the moment you all have been waiting for. It's time for the global sensation, the one, the only, the undisputed heavyweight podcast in the world the Mass Timber Construction Podcast. And now here's Paul Ramblin, your host. Good morning, good afternoon or good evening wherever you are in the world today, welcome to the Mass Timber Construction Podcast, and it is lovely to have you back on board again.
Speaker 1:The CIB Conference, the World Congress of Building Research, is happening at Pud Purdue University in the US this week, and I'll be presenting a couple of papers which I'm very, very pleased about. So check that out. And also don't forget to subscribe, like, comment, share or repost any of our content on LinkedIn or our social media. And, of course, we have our academic journal, and the latest article has been released just recently, so check that out. Let's have a look at what's making news around the world.
Speaker 1:This week in Masatima, construction Land and Honka, a pioneer in modern wood construction, launches a next generation CLT called Honka Fusion Plus. Honka launches this new non-settling CLT log solution that facilitates even more ambitious and ecological massive wood constructions. The new solid section construction streamlined design of non-settling CLT logs has an even more environmentally friendly, natural looking and technically efficient than what it has ever been before. Honka Fusion Plus is an innovative solution for modern architecture. If you'd like to read some more around Honka Fusion Plus, you can go to our LinkedIn feed and see this 22-year development project and you make your minds up to see whether this is a better solution. And the Materials, minerals and Mining for People, places and Planet is a place to showcase your innovations and new insights with fellow professionals from the materials, minerals and mining area. It's an inspiring series of case studies that align with the M3P3 themes, and they want to hear from you and they want to hear from you. So if you're a student, early career professional, ceo or anyone in the world, get together, put an abstract in before September 30 this year and you can head to the M3P3 website to find out more.
Speaker 1:And there are the RIBA Awards currently on at the moment, and the Tim Rollins Architects have produced an amazing building the Spencer Building at Worth School in West Sussex. Tim Rowlands Architects has won this particular award, which features 4.3 million pounds, and it is an impressive building. It has a long front entrance with a very ambitious and generous window opening array on its front facade and inside it is adorned by beautiful mass timber. If you'd like to go and have a look at that particular project and there was also another one that won an award, which was a simple CLT glulam structure for Chris Dyson Architects, which was very inspiring. It looks like a farmhouse. It is in the contract value of about 1.8 million pounds. It is a social value cultural impact project which is in the Harrow Arts Centre. The Greenhill building has already attracted more audiences and groups in its new site than ever before. Congratulations to both winners using mass timber as part of their project entries.
Speaker 1:Federal and territorial housing agencies will hold a ceremony in the next week to mark the working beginning of the new 50-public unit housing project in downtown Yellowknife free bachelor suites and 25 two-bedroom units that were built across from 50 Street, from Centre Square Mall, on a vacant lot between the Gold Range and the Raven Housing NWT and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the City of Yellow Knife will hold a groundbreaking ceremony very, very soon and those levels of government say that these particular buildings of sustainable design using mass timber, construction for rapid assembly and biomass heating are expected to be completed in the fall or autumn of 2026. We have a schematic of the building on our linkedin feed. So if you'd like to have a look at that project, do check in on us, and there's a link to the original article as well. Big shout out to Sam Hart, who has been featured in an article which we've featured on our LinkedIn feed. After a decade of challenging misconceptions around the quality, safety and potential of Scottish timber, the Mass Timber Centre for Excellence, part of the BEST group, has hit a milestone journey for making UK-grown mass timber a mainstream high-value construction solution. Sam Hart, the Associate Director of MMC for the manufacturing BEST, says that we change things by changing cultural misconceptions, and certainly the question they've been trying to answer over the last 10 years of partners is how can we make a UK grown timber that is so strong as the Europeans that we can then create a solution for a sustainable future? If you'd like to read the full article and see Sam's lovely face on the front page of our LinkedIn feed, you can head to you guessed it the Mass Timber Construction Journal LinkedIn feed. You can head to you guessed it the Mass Timber Construction Journal LinkedIn feed.
Speaker 1:And Mass Timber Construction is gradually taking hold on the east coast of the US following the D2 group's completion of the Timber Office building just outside Philadelphia Lake. Flatto, an award-winning practice based in Texas, has delivered the first such project within the city limits of the University of Pennsylvania. The building is designed from Penn Engineers' growing data science artificial intelligence program, delivering sleek new classrooms Christened the Amy Guttenham Hall after the university recently departed president. The building is situated at the corner of 34th and Chestnut Street Street, directly adjacent the campus of Penn's neighbor, drexel University. This particular site was ceded by Penn in the 1960s during Philadelphia's urban renewal efforts, but has remained underutilized for decades. And now this is an amazing project to fill a void. The concept drawings are incredible, the building looks amazing. Check it out for yourself.
Speaker 1:And that's it, folks. That's all we've got time for this week. In Massatimba Construction Land, that's what's making news around the world. Don't forget to check in, like, comment, share, subscribe to anything on our platforms and thank you for tuning in each week. We really do appreciate it and we look forward to catching up with you in the very near future. Good morning, good afternoon or good evening. My name is paul kramer, your host signing off from the mass timber construction podcast. Thank you.