Canadian Wood conducted a successful seminar on “Building with Wood”

Forestry innovation consulting India Pvt. Ltd. India, a crown agency of the provincial government of British Columbia, Canada, is popularly known as Canadian Wood. In collaboration with MAK Projects, Canadian Wood successfully hosted an educational seminar on ‘building with wood’ in BTR Greens, Hyderabad on 20^th October 2022. After a two-year gap because of the pandemic, Canadian Wood has resumed organising educational seminars. Recently, Canadian Wood constructed a sustainable villa in collaboration with MAK Projects. The villa is constructed using engineered wood and is an excellent example of the wood frame construction technique.

About the seminar

The intent behind organising an educational seminar on “Building with wood” is to encourage the use of sustainable and legally harvested wood from Canada. The Assistant Director of Technical Services of Canadian Wood, Dr. Jimmy Thomas, acted as the moderator of the session. The Country Director of Canadian Wood, Mr. Pranesh Chhibber, gave the opening notes and introduction to the seminar. Wood specialist, Mr. Stanley Berlin, shared his expertise on “Building with Wood”. The founder of Artius Interior Products, Mrs. Bhawma Sharma, gave a stimulating presentation on “Building with Engineered Wood”. Mr. Osman Ali Khan from MAK Projects spoke about “Why we should build with wood?”.

The honorary consul of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and Promoter and Managing Director of MAK Projects, H.E. Dr. Nawab Mir Nasir Ali Khan, talked about his collaboration with Canadian Wood for constructing a sustainable villa using wood frame construction technique. Mr. Ritesh Kumar, the Assistant Director of Business Development of Canadian Wood, gave a vote of thanks.

Mr. Pranesh Chhibber, Country Director, Canadian Wood 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 and 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 biophilic benefits from wood.”

Talking about the sustainable Canadian Wood Villa, Mr. Stanley Berlin, a 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 plants three more trees. In a hundred years, we can break down this house, and every material used can be repurposed again.”

Sharing her thoughts on building with engineered wood, Mrs. Bhawna Sharma, Founder, 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. So, 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.”

Talking about building with wood, Mr. Osman Ali Khan from 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 entails. Wood houses can be divided into a lot of types, but the technology we use is lightweight 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.”

Talking about the collaboration with Canadian Wood, H.E. Dr. Nawab Mir Nasir Ali Khan the promoter and managing director of MAK Projects, said–

“MAK Projects is 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 drastically increasing since people these days are more conscious about a healthy lifestyle. The future of the construction industry lies in building with wood.”

For any further inquiries, contact:

Mr. Arif Moosa: arif.moosa@canadianwood.in