Well, Summer is over (insert sad face), the breeze is cooler and fall has begun. We’ve been asked many times, “So Aspect, how did you spend your Summer?”…so we thought we’d share some highlights!

Back in early June, Bernhard attended the AIA Conference on Architecture in San Francisco and co-presented “How Mass Timber Buildings Improve our Climate and our Communities” with our friends from SFI, Jamestown, and Leers Weinzapful. Along with interesting sessions, thought-provoking discussions, and the latest on new products and fabricators, it was great to meet with clients and make new connections!

At the end of June, Ornagh and Brendan (with Mehrdad in tow) took off for Oslo, Norway and the World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE), one of the most exciting events on the mass timber calendar. They presented papers on our Tallwood 1 and Terminus projects, and returned inspired and full of knowledge as well. Some of the stand-out presentations included:

• Keynote Speaker, Age Holmestad, a Norwegian mass timber expert involved in many famous and groundbreaking timber structures, who provided insights from his work over the past 40 years.
• Another Keynote Speaker, Jennifer Cover, President and CEO of Woodworks US, highlighted the importance of using timber as a means of sustainable construction to meet the growing demand for housing as the population grows
• A number of Fire Design concepts, presented by: David Barber of Arup (a study exploring the fire resistance of exterior CLT building walls in various fire cases); Lakehead University (various CLT  concrete composite floor slab fire tests) and Hans Eric Blomgren (fire design of glulam connections with timber-to-timber bearing interfaces).
• Designing for Robustness in Mass Timber, with presentations by Pedro Palma (on revisions underway for Eurocode 5), and Johannes A.J. Huber (on Application of Tube Connector for Catenary Action in CLT Floors).
• Code discussions on the state of both Canadian and American code provisions for tall mass timber with presentations by the Canadian Wood Council an American Wood Council.

Outside of the conference, the team had fun exploring the city, the architecture, and especially partaking in the saunas at the harbour!

In July, there was more fun (and adrenaline) had in Europe, when Bernhard, Beatrice, Ornagh, and Thomas completed the Eiger Ultra Trail together in Switzerland, a race through some of the most famous mountains and picturesque landscapes in the region.

A few days later, the Fabrication Design team set out on a super educational tour of mass timber suppliers and fabricators in Austria and Switzerland, including:

1. The Hasslacher headquarters, glulam plant, and specialty glulam production facilities in Hermagor, and Sachsenburg. It was truly awesome to see in person the incredible amount of automation incorporated, along with the saw block gluing press, assembly, and finishing end before seeing glulam packages prepped and packed into containers for their journeys around the world.

2. Binderholz headquarters and production facilities in Hallein and Jenbach, where the team got to see glulam and assembly for one of our very own US office projects!

3. A stop at CREE Buildings headquarters, LCT One, in Dornbirn where our friends Tim and Julia from CREE graciously provided a tour of the building, and an overview of the CREE system.

4. The specialty glulam freeform production facility of Blumer Lehmann in Gossau, Switzerland, as well as the sawmill and lumber production nearby.

Back over in Canada, we continued to work hard on many projects – and definitely provided valuable work experience to our co-op/intern students, ensuring they stayed focused!

It was summer after all, so there were many excursions for ice cream too…

In early September, Meike returned to the BC Wood Global Buyers Mission (GBM) in Whistler and presented on Design for Constructability with Mike Marshall from Kinsol. Always great to connect with those interested in specifying and buying wood products!

We were also super proud to host our first sponsor event with WCE (Women in Consulting Engineering) in Vancouver which was a negotiation workshop with The Thoughtful Co. As passionate advocates of women in engineering this event was very close to our hearts, and provided a ton of valuable information and tips that can be used by anyone in negotiations.

On top of all that, we enjoyed many Lunch & Learns from valued suppliers, had lots of new faces join our teams, and we started a variety of new and exciting projects. Thanks to all who added to our fantastic summer!

So, tell us – what did you do this summer?