Reflecting the traditional plank houses of the Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation, the Klemtu Community & Wellness Centre will foster individuals’ health and well-being. Wrapping around the new mass timber centre will be an elevated boardwalk, which will have a series of covered outdoor gathering areas. As people enter the covered main entrance, adorned with a large copper crest above, they arrive in the great hall, which provides access to four social spaces: for elders, gatherings, youth, and family. Above the hall is a cone-shaped skylight lined with woven wood, recalling traditional cedar bark hats, baskets, and capes. In addition, a long circular pathway divides the building, connecting a fitness centre at one end and a family, education, and training centre at the other.

Intelligent City has begun production of Hälsa 230 Royal York, a nine-storey mass timber residential building in the west end of Toronto. The Vancouver-based firm specializes in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of prefabricated mass timber building systems for urban housing developments. On completion, 230 Royal York is set to be the Toronto’s tallest mass timber residential structure. It will include 58 prefabricated rental units with mass timber floor systems and envelope panels. Intelligent City’s off-site construction of the main structure and building envelope will reduce on-site assembly to about three months. On-site installation of the components begins in May.

On its completion, the Paradee School of Global Studies, at 186 ft., will be the tallest mass timber tower in the Northeast U.S. The 70,000-sq.ft. structure will be situated on a former parking lot at Boston University and will house conference and event facilities, classrooms, faculty offices, and social spaces. The building’s footprint will be just 10% of the site; the remainder will be dedicated to a future central green for the university. In addition, the mass timber structural frame will reduce embodied carbon by 87% compared to a steel-and-concrete frame. The building envelope will be triple-glazed with solar screening to reduce solar heat gain, and the roof will have a solar-ready infrastructure. Completion is set for 2027.

The Forest Green Rovers, whose players wear uniforms made of recycled plastic and coffee grounds, has been called the “greenest team in the world” by FIFA. So it’s fitting that the English football team—which competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system—will be getting a new all-timber stadium. The 5,000-seat stadium will be the first of its kind, with almost every element made of sustainably sourced timber, including the structure, roof cantilevers, and louvred cladding. The new training facility at Eco Park will bring together the youth, academy, women’s, and first teams under one roof. As the club continues to grow, plans are in place for a Phase 2 expansion that would add an additional 5,000 seats.

Debrecen, the second-largest city in Hungary, will be the new home of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, currently in the country’s capital, Budapest. Located on a former sports field at the northern edge of Debrecen’s Great Forest, the 23,000-sq.m mass timber structure of three overlapping volumes will seem to rise from the forest floor to blend in with the park surroundings. The building will comprise permanent and temporary exhibition halls, educational and research facilities, public amenities, and back-of-house spaces. The reception area acts as a central point for glimpses into the exhibition halls—five for permanent collections and one for temporary shows and public programs. A library and restaurant situated above will offer views of the tree canopy.