In 2013, the Government of Canada announced funding dedicated to tall wood building construction in Canada through the Tall Wood Building Demonstration Initiative (TWBDI). The program addressed key technical barriers in the design and construction of tall wood structures and encouraged greater acceptance of engineered wood products in tall building applications.
Consult Natural Resources Canada’s brochure to learn more
In 2014, the first edition of the FPInnovations’ Technical Guide for the Design and Construction of Tall Wood Buildings in Canada, partly funded by Natural Resources Canada, was used as a reference for the design of the demonstration projects under the initiative. This initiative supported the design, approval, and construction of two tall wood demonstration buildings, Brock Commons Tallwood House in Vancouver and Origine Ecocondos in Québec City.
Green Construction through Wood Program
In 2017, building on the success of the TWBDI, the Government of Canada launched the Green Construction through Wood (GCWood) Program, which encourages the greater use of wood in construction projects and supports Canada’s transition to a low-carbon economy. The program brings awareness to and increases capacity for innovative tall wood buildings, timber bridges and low-rise wood buildings in addition to funding technical research to support building code revisions and contributing to building the future wood design and construction capacity in Canada.
Since then, several new projects have been built or planned in Canada (refer to The State of Mass Timber in Canada 2021 to learn more), with many provinces updating and amending their construction standards and codes to allow for taller wood buildings including British Columbia and Alberta. More recently, the 2020 edition of the national Building Code of Canada which permits tall wood buildings up to 12 storeys was published.
Here are a few examples of emerging tall wood buildings that are planned or under construction in Canada:
- Canada Earth Tower in Vancouver
- 77 Wade Avenue in Toronto
- Prototype by Westbank in Vancouver
- George Brown Limberlost in Toronto
- Keith Drive in Vancouver
- Arbora in Montréal
- University of Toronto Academic Tower
- T3 Bayside in Toronto
- T3 Mount Pleasant in Vancouver
Tall wood building Guide
Stay tuned! The 2022 edition of the Technical Guide for the Design and Construction of Tall Wood Buildings in Canada is about to be released. This new version was completely updated to comply with the recently published 2020 National Building Code of Canada, the 2019 edition of the CSA standard O86, and the Canadian Wood Council Wood Design Manual 2020.
