On 12^th and 13^th of October 2011 the Cross-Laminated Timber Symposium and Workshop will take place in Moncton (New Brunswick | Canada).

The one-day Symposium consists of a series of presentations by Canadian and European experts that cover all major aspects of performance of CLT assemblies, and case studies from Canada and Europe. The half-day interactive Workshop will be led and facilitated by CLT manufacturers and design professionals who will guide the audience through the design process of a CLT building.

Invitation

More than 150 people participated in the second very successful CLT-Seminar, that took place in Toronto / Canada from June 21st to 22nd. Positive feedback was given consistently and allows the organizers look to the future with confidence. Further seminars are planed already, e.g. in New Brunswick.

All contributions were on a very high level and it can be told that the Canadian CLT-community has taken a high quality way in research and development as well as in realization of the projects.

It is assumed that, although Canadian industry is currently only talking about three Canadian CLT-producers - NORDIC Wood | Structurlam | CST Innovations (further producers will follow for sure) - that the transfer activities carried out by FPInnovations Vancouver and Quebec in cooperation with 11 Universities and Wood WORKS! will fructify. This is proved by currently 24 scientific employees with over a million Canadian dollars at their command working on 14 CLT related projects at different places across Canada.

Although activities in the United States of America are lagging behind those in Canada, they are still worth mentioning here. The positive trend was proven by an important presentation by C. Murphy from North Carolina. Furthermore, it can be mentioned that at the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) in Madison | Wisconsin as well as at other Universities in the USA are working on CLT related projects. It is only a question of time when the success will be clearly visible. Transfer activities such as the Canadian CLT-seminars will also be carried out in the United States.

The term CLT, which was first used 2000 in the publication 'SOLID Timber Construction' at the Conference of COST Action E5 'Timber Frame Building Systems' in Venice, has in the meantime become the commonly used term for this product.

On 21^st and 22^nd of June 2011 the Cross-Laminated Timber Symposium will take place in Toronto (Ontario | Canada).

These topics will be discussed: architectural and structural design, manufacturing, seismic resistance, connections, fire safety, acoustics, floor vibrations, durability, and environmental performance.

Invitation

On February 8th and 9th 2011 the Cross-Laminated Timber Symposium took place in Vancouver, Canada.

More than 260 participants from Canada, USA, Indonesia, Malaysia and Europe used the opportunity learn more about the, in Canada relatively unknown, product CLT.

On the one hand an overview over the CLThandbook, which is available in North America and was edited by FPInnovations, was presented. On the other hand European scientists (A. Ceccotti, A. Thiel, G. Schickhofer) as well as engineers and architects (T. Wallwork) were invited to report about their experiences and research results. All in all 18 presentations were given.

As could be seen by the selling out of the CLThandbook edition of 1000 pieces after a few days and the accompanying discussions it can be expected that the product CLT will soon make the break through, if it has not already managed it.

Besides bar-like products such as glue laminated timber (GLT), Timber Engineering now also has a recognized and broadly accepted surface-like product. The Canadian CLT-manufactures used the symposium in order to show their first important steps towards an independent production.

The organisers of the symposium were happy about the great success and one can be sure that further similar transfer activities will follow. Actually, a similar symposium is planned to take place in Toronto in June this year. It’s going to be interesting how the North American market will develop. In any case it seems advisable not only monitor the North American market but also to keep an eye on the new CLT-manufacturers. This is not only true for North America, and here especially Canada, but also further countries like Australia and New Zealand.