Canadian Wood- a Crown agency of the provincial government of British Columbia (B.C) Canada; in collaboration with MAK Projects-a premier infrastructure and housing development company; hosted a seminar on ‘Build with Wood’ at BTR Greens, Hyderabad, today. Mr Bikshapati, Director General, NAC; Mr Murali Bukkapatnam, Vice Chairman, TiEGlobal; Mr Srikanth Sinha, CEO, TASK; Arch.Shankar Narayan, Vice president, Indian Institute of Architects- Telangana Chapter, Mr Vikram Jain, Trade Commissioner, Govt. of Canada; Dr Tasneem, Trade Commissioner, Namibia; Mr Kota Reddy, MD, Sri Aditya Homes; leading architects, developers, HNIs and connoisseurs of wooden dwellings; attended the seminar.
Pranesh Chhibber – Country Director, Canadian Wood (FII); in his opening remarks said “In the last couple of years, India lost the art of building with wood. Canadian Wood’s idea is to promote building with wood in India again. In this seminar, we have called in some eminent speakers who have been involved in building with wood for a while now, and they shared their knowledge and expertise on the best practices on how to build with wood. The guests here today were able to see how one can derive not only the environmental benefits but also the bio-filic benefits from wood.”
Sharing insights on the Canadian Wood Villa Mr. Stanley Berlin, Wood Construction Specialist, said, “The Canadian Wood Villa was constructed in less than 10 months and trained about 70 artisans during that period on how to build with wood. This seminar provided an excellent opportunity to introduce the wood frame construction technique to Indian architects, designers, Builders and manufacturers. Everything used to build the villa, is renewable, unlike concrete and steel, which are exhaustible resources. For every tree harvested, Canadian Wood Products plants three more trees. In a hundred years, we can break down this house and every material used can be repurposed again.”
Commenting on building with engineered wood, Bhawna Sharma, Artius Interior Products, said, “I am truly inspired to build with timber as it drastically reduces the carbon footprint. Statistics show that one cubic metre of timber stores around one tonne of carbon. The world is facing two major issues at the moment, housing and the global climate crisis. If we continue to build using traditional materials like concrete, we will only accelerate global warming. Science and researchers have made it possible to build a 300-meter-tall timber tower. The Canadian Wood Villa will serve as a great example for promoting wood construction in India.”
Osman Ali Khan, Director Business Development, MAK Projects, said, “In this seminar, we will talk about the problems India faces in building with wood while also explaining what a modern wood house entail. Wood houses can be divided into a lot of types, but the technology we use is light-weight timber framing and mass timber. The reason why we shifted to wood was that we wanted to show that concrete is not sustainable. For India to become carbon neutral by 2070, and to achieve that goal, every industry needs to become sustainable. “
Speaking on the collaboration with Canadian Wood Nasir Ali Khan, Promoter and Managing Director of MAK Projects, said, “As a company, MAK Projects, we are a luxury housing company. Our current project focuses on green and healthy living. It was a pleasure to collaborate with Canadian Wood. We would be glad to do more such projects with them that focus on sustainability. The market demand for sustainable projects is gradually increasing since people these days are more conscious about a healthy lifestyle. The future of the construction industry lies in building with wood.” Mr Ritesh Kumar, Assistant Director – Business Development of Canadian wood proposed the vote of thanks.
The delegates & the guests at the seminar had a guided tour of the MAK Canadian wood villa and were thoroughly impressed with the finesse and aesthetic look of a wooden construction. The villa is the first of its kind in India and is built using certified wood from sustainably managed forests of British Columbia in Canada. MAK Projects has tied up with Canadian wood to build and promote sustainable wooden luxury homes in India.
Mass timber construction has created a new way of building. The volume of wood used in the MAK Wood Villa is 192 cubic metres, which is replenished by Canadian forests every 1.6 minutes. This method of construction can dramatically reduce construction carbon emissions. 327 metric tons of CO2 emission was avoided by using wood for this house, which is equivalent to 102 cars being off the road for a year, that is enough energy to operate 51 home for a year.
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