HALIFAX: A select group of Atlantic Canada’s leading architects, engineers, and project teams received Wood Design Awards at the 2nd Atlantic WoodWORKS! celebration in Halifax on November 8.
The Atlantic WoodWORKS! awards program recognizes people and organizations that, through design excellence, advocacy, and innovation, are advancing the use of wood in all types of construction.
Jury member, Steven Street of Ontario WoodWORKS! said of this year’s competition.
“The quality of this year’s entries was exceptional,” Street remarked. “Many of the projects had a clear sensitivity to the culture of the Maritimes – especially some winning entries that emphasized regional materials and methods. The varied uses of the buildings really show the versatility that wood can bring to a project – producing sustainable, innovative, cost-effective building solutions – while significantly lowering the carbon footprint.”
Atlantic WoodWORKS! handed out nine awards at the event; seven went to specific wood projects and two were given to professionals whose contributions to the design/build community made them stand out as wood design experts and advocates.
Among the winning projects was the new Cabot Links Lodge in Inverness, which took the Nova Scotia Non-residential Project Award. The architect was Fowler Bauld & Mitchell Ltd. and the engineer was BMR Structural Engineering.
The lodge was divided into a series of buildings linked by a heavy timber walkway that allowed for the use of conventional wood construction, facilitating the use of local contractors and embedding the project more fully within the local consciousness of rural Cape Breton. The heavy timber post and beam walkway has galvanized steel connections, floating the posts above the walkway. The two-foot by four-foot Nail Laminated Timber structural decking follows the grid of the building with the curve of the structure and the structural grid clearly marked.
“The inspirational projects showed how adaptable wood can be for buildings ranging in scale from single family homes to sports facilities with long-span wood trusses,” explains jury member, David Moses of Moses Structural Engineers.
“We saw wood being used in its purest raw form and wood incorporated in hybrid systems with other materials. This second year of the Wood Design Awards exemplifies the emerging trend of using local, sustainable wood in construction and I have no doubt this is just the beginning of a movement throughout Atlantic Canada to expand the innovative and creative use of wood in design.”
The Atlantic Residential Award winner is the Rabbit Snare Gorge, also in Inverness. Omar Gandhi was the architect and the engineer was Andrea Doncaster Engineering.
Nominal sized lumber materials, bought and supplied locally, were used for the framing of the cabin, which was engineered to withstand the extreme Cape Breton winds. The exterior cladding is made up entirely of eastern white cedar boards and the interior material palette is composed of birch plywood. The end result is a tall gabbled building resembling a solid block of local wood. This house is very striking due to its unusual proportions and overall minimalistic approach.
Wood WORKS! is a national, industry-led initiative of the Canadian Wood Council that promotes and supports the use of wood in all types of construction. Working with the design community, Wood WORKS! connects practitioners with resources related to the use of wood in commercial, industrial, institutional and multi-unit residential construction, assists in product sourcing, and delivers educational seminars and training opportunities to existing and future practitioners.