Why attend this Symposium?

Prefabrication in mass timber buildings is fast becoming a reality and, through digital design and manufacturing processes, it is having a disruptive effect on the building industry. In order to maintain BC’s lead in innovation in wood and to promote value added processes within the province, it is timely for BC to lead a symposium on the state-of-the-art in Wood Prefabricated Buildings. This symposium is a collaboration between UBC Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP), UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), all of whom recognize the importance of prefabrication as an emerging technology in the building industry, both for residential as well as institutional projects. 

The symposium is meant to bring together architects, engineers and fabricators who are interested in the future of prefabrication in wood. The future of design in prefabricated buildings necessitates the integration of disciplines and thus the symposium will have industry leaders present in these areas.

The conference will be focused around three key themes; State-of-the-Art in Prefabrication, Industry 4.0, and BC Innovation Prefabrication. As such the event will appeal to architects, engineers, manufacturers and building professionals seeking more information on prefabrication that will enable them to fully participate in the growing market for prefabricated mass timber, tall wood, passive house and large multi-family wood structures. The event will stay away from presentations describing the general benefits of prominent projects and will instead focus much more on the “how to” aspects of innovation in the field.