2024 International Mass Timber Conference Recap
I am finally getting around to a wrap-up of the International Mass Timber Conference from this year after a month of travel for both work and pleasure. This is my favorite conference of the year because I get to catch up with the whole mass timber community and meet new people interested in the subject. Check out the highlights below!
Speaker Panel - Regulatory Challenges and Compliance Issues Specific to Mass Timber
I moderated a panel called Regulatory Challenges and Compliance Issues Specific to Mass Timber on Thursday at 1:15pm, sponsored by Nordic Structures. Keith Wen from the Department of Buildings in New York spoke about Fire & Safety Considerations for Timber Construction in New York City (a personal interest of mine to improve the city I live in!) Erich Roden gave a talk called Reducing Char on Wooden Skylines, about his experience as the Fire Marshall who approved the Ascent tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the power of collaboration with fire departments for successful outcomes. Danika Irvine showcased Four Projects, Four Sets of Challenges, all of which are in one Canadian Province, but with four different Jurisdictions and and building codes.
We had some great questions from the audience about applicability of these approaches in their jurisdictions, and I hope this leads to more sharing between the approval bodies themselves to learn from one another.
Intelligent City Booth
This year we expanded the Intelligent City booth to a larger space to showcase our products to attendees. The conversation has definitely advanced beyond the basics of mass timber. There was a lot of interest in prefabrication and how offsite construction can scale sustainable building solutions, particularly to support our housing needs. Questions I received were detailed and specific, including how we address concealed spaces within our floor cassettes, how the scope is split between the factory and the subcontractors on site for integrated electrical and mechanical services, and the performance characteristics of our envelope panes related to air tightness, exposed mass timber finishes, and penetrations for exhaust and air intake. I see this as progress in a maturing industry, with a growing knowledge base to support it.
Favorite Event
I attended my favorite event at the International Mass Timber Conference, the Women in Timber power hour. Thank you LEVER Architecture, Timberlab, and Swinerton for organizing such a great event focused on bringing women and non-binary folks together in this male dominated industry. It’s always great to connect with other women doing innovative work!
Happy Hours and Dinners
The social events surrounding the conference are always fun, and a great time to catch up with the work others are doing. The open house that Lever Architecture organized at the Thesis Headquarters showed off the beautiful mass timber space recently opened. Dinner at Coopers Hall hosted by DCI Engineers (thanks for the invite Ethan!) was full of lively conversation and reminiscing amongst old friends. M.Thrailkill Architect hosted a wonderful client dinner at Noble Rot, where I got to meet other mass timber architects working with Michael and his team on specifications from around the world.
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