Mass Timber Market Updates - Apr 2025 - Week Sixteen

Good morning , good afternoon or good evening wherever you are in the world today , welcome to the Mass Timber Construction Podcast . My name is Paul Kramer , your host . Thank you , bruce Buffer . Veteran voice of the Octagon . It is very close to the Christian holiday for Easter this year .

I hope that you have a great celebration if you're celebrating Easter , and make sure that you take some time out to be with family , friends and loved ones and catch up on the latest news from around the world .

In my semi-construction land , I certainly will be taking some time off , and so this podcast is a couple of days delayed and late because of the Easter holiday , but you've got to take time out from

work .

Let's have a look at what's making news around the world this week in Mass Timber Construction Land , as institutes nationwide face mounting pressure to deliver student housing that meets ambitious targets for affordability , sustainability and occupant well-being , western Michigan University's new 1,000-bed , 270,000-square-foot resident hall is a game-changing example of how projects and

objectives can be delivered and met by harnessing hybrid construction , which marries mass timber with advanced prefabrication technique . The project demonstrates fast , affordable and sustainable housing to meet the mutually exclusive needs of students and their accommodations whilst they're at university .

If you'd like to have a look at this amazing project , you know where to head , and CBC News is reporting that mass timber is now being used in industrial construction

in Sudbury for the first time . A Sudbury developer says he's enjoyed using new types of materials for building his industrial projects that provide a difference to all other buildings in the surrounding areas .

Based in Cambrian Heights , the project is intended for use in commercial and warehouse purposes , and the new building will be fully leased on the highway 69 south to Sudbury , and it will look to build another in the west of the city when the development comes online . It's an impressive pathway forward using mass timber in industrial spaces .

We know that there are others around the world doing the same . Let's see if this trend continues , because I think it's quite an innovative approach , and I hope you do too . I don't like to get into political commentary when it comes to the podcast

. However , there's an undeniable stirring happening in North America and Canada , and this really does impact sustainable architecture and affordable housing when it comes to the casualties of tariffs that are being laid , and it is important to understand that low carbon building and affordability in housing .

Particularly being hit by the uncertainty around tariffs being applied means that the markets are plunged into chaos and this creates unsettling times for the long-term policy . For things like the American Institute of Architects saying that the way of moving forward is using construction materials that are sustainable is now in a bit of doubt or in a bit of question .

There is news that there's hope on the horizon that things will progress and things will revert back to a point where sensibility kicks in .

We will all have to wait and see what happens in supply chains , but pressures on supply chains and mass timber are not foreign , and if you want to read more about this in interesting area of policy , you can head to our linkedin feed . And we've spoken about sweden's largest wooden all wooden city in stockholm , spanning 250 000 square

meters . Stockholm wood city will be the world's largest wood built urban urban city , at an estimated cost of $1.4 billion , according to the website . The project , which is located in Stockholm , which has been under construction since October 2024 , and the first phase of the city is expected to be completed at the end of this year , 2025 .

The city is expected to include 2,000 residential units by 2027 and it will have a high school space for approximately 7,000 office spaces , shops , restaurants , cultural venues all within walking distance of each other . It's an impressive project . If you want to learn more about it , we posted something on it two days ago , so head to our LinkedIn feed

. The American Wood Council has released an updated version of its connection calculator . The calculator supports users by calculating capacities for bolts and nails and large screws in accordance with the 2024 National Design Specification for Wood Construction ANSI , awc , nds 2024 .

The key update includes adding design provisions for calculating fastener head pull-through and nails and wood screws , and the addition of explicit lateral design provisions for smooth shank metal hardware nails and deformed shank nails . If you want to hear more about that , head to the American Wood Council .

You can read some articles on that and take a walk through the additions to the calculator .

And that's it , folks . That's all we've got time for this week in Mass Timber Construction Land . We hope that you have a great Easter . If you are celebrating . If not , have a relaxing time . I'll catch you next week . That's what's making news around the world this week . Don't forget to hit subscribe .

If you've got a manuscript that you want to put into an international journal for peer review , please head to our LinkedIn feed and you can get the link to the Mass Timber Construction Journal . Or you can head straight to masstimberconstructioncom and you'll go straight to the website so you can submit .

Good morning , good afternoon or good evening , wherever you are in the world , have a great week . Catch up with you next week . This is paul cramer signing off on the mass timber construction podcast . Thank you , bye .