A new concert hall designed by Shigeru Ban Architects has been unveiled in Altdorf, Switzerland. The hall will be constructed entirely from timber within the shell of a protected 19th-century armoury building. Rather than replacing the existing structure, the project inserts a new organically shaped wooden performance venue inside the historic envelope, creating a contemporary cultural facility while preserving the original building. Commissioned by cultural organization Zauberklang, the hall will accommodate 200 to 250 people and will serve as both a concert venue and educational space. The project has been announced and is advancing through development.

Located at the base of Swuq’us (Mount Prevost), and set to open in mid-2027, the new Quw’utsun Valley Hospital will serve Indigenous populations in the Cowichan Valley Regional District, as well as those living within the unceded and traditional territories in the area. Three times larger than the current facility, the hospital includes 204 beds, seven operating rooms, outpatient clinic services, an expanded emergency department, and a rooftop helipad. There is also a 20-bed inpatient psychiatry unit and a four-bed psychiatric ICU. At the heart of the hospital is a two-storey Community Hall that will connect the upper and lower site entries with the future inpatient unit tower as well as diagnostic and treatment block. Inspired by the design of traditional Coast Salish longhouses, this central gathering space features timber framing, wood platforms, and vertical poles that create a distinctive wood structure and reinforce its connection to the land. 

Once complete, the Aplin Center at Texas A&M University will be the largest mass timber project on a university campus in Texas. The new center will use more than 3.5 million board feet of timber, in the form of GLT columns and beams and CLT floor and roof panels, all sourced from sawmills within the state. Designed by DLR Group and Pickard Chilton, the building’s program will include a restaurant that gives students direct food service and management experiences. It will also house the relocated campus visitor center, which will include a 170-seat theater and a 70-seat multipurpose room. Currently under construction, the three-storey, 200,000-sq.-ft. center is set to open in 2028. 

Ohio State University students will soon have new off-campus accommodations. A 13-storey, 242,000-sq.ft. residence building called INTRO Columbus, currently under construction, is the tallest mass timber student housing project in the U.S. It includes 186 units with 493 beds, and offers townhomes and typical apartment layouts, with exposed CLT panels and glulam beams and columns in the corridors and residential units. The building will also incorporate several communal spaces, including lounges, study rooms and a second-floor amenity deck complete with grills and fire pit. There is also ample indoor parking for bicycles and scooters. Opening is expected by summer 2027.

Simon Fraser University’s newest student housing project, currently under construction and scheduled for occupancy in fall 2027, is a nine-storey, 18,151 m²(195,371 ft²), 445-bed, mass timber residence for upper year students. Designed by Public Architecture + Design Inc., the project features seven storeys of hybrid mass timber construction over a two-storey concrete base. The building provides a mix of studio apartments and four-bedroom suites, addressing an immediate need for affordable housing on the Burnaby campus. Energy for the building will be provided by the local district energy system, a high-efficiency biomass plant that uses wood waste from landfills to heat SFU buildings. The use of biomass has already helped the University reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent.