February 2018
UBC-HIT Timber Design Studio
July 2017
UBC-SEU-NJT Timber Design Studio
February 2017
UBC-HIT Timber Design Studio
08/01/2016 – 08/21/2016
UBC-SEU Timber Design Studio
Lately a twenty day design studio was run at UBC organized by Canada Wood and TEAM Lab having the dual theme in mind: Exhibit and Educate. The event was participated by thirteen undergraduate students from the South East University (SEU), one of the leading architectural schools in China.
The program was started with a two day intensive technical session led by Prof. Dr. Frank Lam introducing the key issues relating wood as a building materials.
Following the introductory module of the program, the course took on a design studio structure. The aim of the design studio was to give students an opportunity to apply their learnings with real-life group projects. This year the studio was entitled the theme as From Trees to Modern Structures.
The designs were consisted of wood based solutions for bus shelter (UBC bus loop); 200 m2 café; and a canopy for an amphitheatre outside the UBC Forest Science Centre.
The design was needed to be functional, technically sound, critically considered, and beautifully designed and executed using wood as the primary medium. In this process, the designs would focus on using the positive attributes of wood and effective material operation.
The studio was also required students to explore how wood can be formed, bent, combined, and otherwise processed to create structure and architectural elements.
Students were assigned in a group to develop both digital and analog design workflows and tested through scale models and prototypes.
A final critique session was also conducted with 6 judges from Vancouver including local architect and engineer. Each group gave a presentation on its design followed with review from the judges.
Project theme: From Trees to Modern Structures
02/15/2016 – 02/17/2016
UBC Chinese Forum 2016
The UBC – Chinese Universities / Design Institutes Timber Structures Technology Forum was an unprecedented event in the history of timber engineering at UBC-Vancouver, Canada. Some 50 researchers, nearly half of whom were university professors from 2 countries, attended the Forum from February 15 to 17, 2016. The Chinese participants were members of the Wood Structure Committee of the Architectural Society of China, from sixteen leading universities and design institutes. This forum, marking the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Wood Structure Committee, aimed to present the recent timber technology developments and to initiate future collaborations between UBC and Chinese institutions. In fact, the calibre and representativeness of timber experts gathered in Vancouver was so high that the Forum attracted attention from the Wood Works, a program of the Canadian Wood Council and the Norbord Inc, an international producer of wood-based panels.
The event was very well received to all the participants as a valuable, stimulating and enjoyable day. It kept them busy by offering various activities, such as, networking with other timber researchers and learning about interesting on-going projects.
From the research landscape’s perspective, the event provided a great opportunity to address its aims related to bringing together information about timber research in China and encouraging dialogue across the members of the UBC-China timber researchers’ community.
Some of the most important projects on modern timber research have been revealed at this meeting. For example, ‘an innovative solution for hybrid wood-concrete tall building’ presented by Dr. Haibei Xiong From Tongji University, China was breathtaking.
Added to this, discussions during the day – particularly in the breakout sessions – have helped graduate students establish good networking with professors and practicing engineers and exchange the research ideas that stimulated and inspired on the commitment to pursuing their own research objectives.
The event was organized by TEAM Lab and Canada Wood and the choice of venue was very convenient in terms of location, comfortable and facilities available, and the catering was also excellent.
After the presentations, the participants visited some world class timber buildings, as well as some production and design facilities in Vancouver area.
Moments from the Forum
