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Chris Philpot, Planet Ark's Make It Wood campaign manager, reports from day two of the WoodSolutions UK Field tour.

Chris Philpot, Planet Ark's Make It Wood campaign manager, reports from day one of the WoodSolutions UK Field tour.

A handy eighty page reference for architects, building designers or anyone requiring R-values of common timber framed structures. Download a free copy of R-values for Timber-framed Building Elements

Chris Philpot, Campaign Manager for Planet Ark's Make it Wood campaign has joined the WoodSolutions 2012 UK Field Tour. Chris will be blogging his experiences and we'll reproduce them here. So, sit back and prepare to be an armchair participant in the Tour. Here's Chris' intro posting...

Wood is known for its strength to weight properties - and these can be further leveraged by engineered timber products - such as the 35 metre laminated timber arches in this award-winning structure in Estonia. The roof was designed by architects Ain Padrik and Vilen Künnapu and constructed by DMT Insenerid, led by project manager Peeter Voovere.

Entries close on June 29th for the 2012 Australian Timber Design Awards. With a wide range of categories to enter, there's an appropriate spot for your favpurite wood project!

Sustainable timber and wood construction systems for residential and commercial buildings will feature at the Frame Australia 2012 conference and exhibition to be held Monday and Tuesday June 18-19 at the Park Hyatt Melbourne.

This stunning grid shell spans 28 metres and demonstrates the light weight and strength of wood.

WoodSolutions Tutorials are a series of non-proprietary technical presentations written for architects, engineers and other building professionals. Covering topics ranging from durability and finishes to sustainability and fire ratings, the Tutorials are an opportunity to increase your knowledge of designing and building with one of the world's most sustainable materials - wood.

A new paper by Andrew Buchanan, David Carradine and Justin Jordan examines the performance of engineered timber structures in the Christchurch earthquakes.

The durability of timber has never quite been tested and proven like this - more than 100 years exposed to blizzards or covered in ice in one of the harshest environments on the planet.

In this 200+ page report the authors look at the case for tall wood buildings, the challenges to their adoption and produce a detailed case study design.

If you're involved in specifying wood or wood products, as an architect, engineer, developer or any other role, this is your chance to shape the future of certification in Australia.

The people with a real hands-on role in building with wood are carpenters and National Carpenters Day is a celebration of their work and contribution to carbon sequestration.

Will the growing popularity of wood structural elements drive a renaissance of traditional craft - or be restricted to innovative engineered wood products? This mortice and tenon pegged red ironbark frame argues for the former.

If you're an architect and would like to top up on CPD points - or hear about the latest in wood design and durability, don't miss the National Seminar Series.

The 2012 Australian Timber Design Awards showcase the best in Australian timber design. With more than 12 categories the Awards are nationally and internationally recognised.

Wood and urban railway stations are not terms that most people think of together. Add a long span pedestrian bridge and you’ve three fascinating projects that make this Canadian video well worth watching.

Building a timber bridge that not only goes over water, but through it, is an innovative and award-winning wood design solution for Dutch architects, RO&AD.

Windmill Hill, in the heart of the Rothschild Waddesdon Estate, designed by Stephen Marshall Architects, has been recognised for its architectural excellence with the RIBA National Award 2011. You can visit Windmill Hill as part of the WoodSolutions 2012 UK Field Tour.

It's not too late to enrol in the 2012 intake for the University of Tasmania's Graduate Certificate in Timber (Processing & Building). It's a great way to be inspired, learn new skills and build your CV - and it's available online too!

Designers selecting plywood are faced with a potentially confusing situation with different standards listing different stress grades. A recent project aimed to simplify the situation by relating the strength and stiffness properties of current softwood/hardwood plywood resources from both Australian and New Zealand to the existing plywood stress grades.

This project investigated how fire really affects timber construction and whether the building codes for Class 3 buildings, such as boarding-houses, guest houses, hotels, motels, or aged care facilities, could be modified with safety.

Using timber concrete composite (TCC) floors in multi-storey buildings is a viable, lightweight alternative to other flooring systems that offers potential cost savings and environmental benefits.