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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/443582
18 BCBusiness february 2015 almost 30 metres high (albeit only six storeys). Beginning this fall, it will house UNBC's new master's program in modern wood engineering. Like the manufactured material itself, innovation—realizing wood's potential—is key to positioning B.C. as a dominant player in the emerging sector of advanced wood architecture. Erol Karacabeyli, research manager at FPInnovations—a scientifically minded forestry nonprofit with facilities across Canada—believes we are already a world leader. "Our CLT hand- books, tall wood building guide and energy guides are consid- ered the best in their categories in the world," Karacabeyli says. And by 2017, UBC could be home to a record-setting 18-storey wood tower, he adds, referring to a $76-million proposal to build a new campus residence with engineered heavy timber like CLT. But Guido Wimmers, the professor in charge of the new program at UNBC, says B.C. isn't yet front-of-pack in terms of building taller wood structures. "In North America, it's fair to say we are leading," Wimmers explains, but he believes we're behind Europe's Alpine region— Switzerland, Germany, Austria— and perhaps Scandinavia and Australia. That said, "all these other countries are not that far ahead. It is a relatively new thing to build tall wood structures in our modern world." It's also a way to add more value to our wood, Wimmers says: "Rather than sell off relatively low-value wood, we need to sell value- added products." That all sounds great, but are people buying? For Struc- turlam, "the market [for CLT] has been good," Downing says. "It's a specialty product, but the demand is building. It's not going crazy, but it's growing." Structurlam has actually been in business since 1962, he points out, selling glulam—short for glued laminated timber—which is similar to CLT but older and ideal for beams, whereas CLT is wide and flat and made for walls and floors. While there are obvious environmental reasons for choosing CLT over concrete, Downing stresses the business benefits: "The main reason you'd buy CLT is the speed of installation." Essentially, your walls and floors come pre- assembled, saving you the time it takes to pour concrete. "Now people are applying it to taller wood buildings, and it's an added bonus." With traditional "stick frame" structures—think two-by-threes and plywood— you couldn't go higher than six storeys, he says, but thanks to CLT and other heavy timbers, that's changing. One major obstacle for taller wood projects is local building codes, although with recent legislative changes, things are looking up: B.C. and Ontario have passed laws permitting six-storey wood structures, and Alberta is considering follow- ing suit. Downing says the old regulations are not relevant to heavy timber, which due to its density does not burn easily. If stick frames were like kindle, CLT is more comparable to the whole log—much harder to light. And unlike concrete, which collapses "catastrophically" in fires, CLT burns slowly and predictably. Luckily, the momentum appears to be in Downing's favour. "I certainly see a trend toward larger and larger build- ings," he says. "The buildings we're doing now are way bigger than the ones we did even five years ago." And they're only scratching the surface, he adds. "We could prefabricate a 10-storey building and ship it anywhere in the world—if the technology takes off like we hope it does." ■ W hen Vancou- ver's Kyle Vucko expanded Indo- chino, his custom-suit business, from an online operation to four physical shops last fall, it was a natural evolution. Since found- ing the business in 2007, he had progressed from pop-up travel- ling tailor stores to a showroom in Indochino's Yaletown office before opening the stand-alone stores. "What we've seen, par- ticularly in apparel, is there is a group of guys who love shop- ping online, but there's also a group of people who love buying in person," says Vucko. "And also just connecting with the community. We'll hold speaking events down the road so this will become a hub for menswear." Vucko's stores stock samples but no inventory. Customers book appointments to be mea- sured and consult a stylist before using Indochino's Style Guide app and a touch screen to select garment details as they would on the website. The finished suit is shipped to the store or the customer's home. U.S. online menswear retailer Bonobos fol- lows a similar concept with its 10 Guideshops. Indochino—which now has 120,000 customers in 140 countries and plans to open more stores in 2015—is one of several online retailers to have gravitated offline. U.S. womens- wear retailers JustFab and Gap's Piperlime have opened flagship stores; Montreal's Frank & Oak has menswear stores there, in Toronto and Vancouver; and Vancouver's Coastal Contacts, Taking it to the streets GoinG Up Why some e-commerce opera- tions are moving into streetfront locations by Felicity Stone Using CLT and glulam, a handful of modern wood tow- ers around the world are reaching new heights—and setting new records: 1. Forté apartments (2012) 10 storeys, Melbourne* * CUrrenT reCord hoLder; FirsT FLoor is ConCreTe 2. Wood innovation and design Centre (2014) 6 storeys, Prince George 3. Planned apartment building (2015) 14 storeys, Bergen, norway 4. Proposed UBC resi- dence (2017) 18 storeys, Vancouver R e t a i l