“Canada’s Earth Tower” in Vancouver a Hybrid Building Construction Game Changer

While it is still awaiting neighborhood planning approval and complete design refinements, Canada’s Earth Tower, a proposed 40-story hybrid wood tower in Vancouver, B.C. by the Delta Land Development in collaboration with architectural firm Perkins+Will, has city residents “quite enthusiastic about the project,” especially for its low-carbon and high-performance qualities.

This is according to Peter Moonen, the national sustainability manager of the Canadian Wood Council, during a seminar on mass timber systems for tall buildings recently held during the Buildings Show in Toronto. Natural Resources Canada through its Green Construction through Wood Program sponsored a design competition for the building. It hopes to spur innovation in the sector developing wood systems for tall buildings, Moonen told the seminar audience.

Sidewalk Labs’s submission was selected over two other finalists, each given $50,000 for full-scale mockups of next-generation panelized systems. The other finalists, Element5 and the now-defunct Katerra, also provided sound designs.