Walls Going Up At WIRL

You can’t miss it. A giant wall covered in an orange tarp behind the Wood Innovation and Design Centre. A new facility to accommodate larger wood projects.
“We needed a larger lab,” explains Dr. Guido Wimmers, the Chair of the Engineering Graduate Program, located in the Wood Innovation and Design Centre.
“There’s a structural testing program and they’ll build a demonstration building and they need to be able to push on that building to test its strength. But in order to push on it, you need something to push off of,” says David Claus, the Assistant Director of Facilities Management at UNBC. “And that’s what’s behind that orange tarp. There’s a metre thick concrete wall that’s six metres tall and its got a whole bunch of reinforcing steel in it and a hole bunch of anchors.
The 900-square metre structure will also be certified as a passive house structure, meaning it will have significantly reduced energy consumption. It will be the first such facility in Canada of an industrial nature. And Dr. Wimmers says that will be challenge because of the extreme weather conditions in Northern BC.
the wood innovation research lab was announced earlier this year.
Once exterior walls and the roof are placed, the Wood Innovation Research Lab will be winterized. That’s when the work begins inside, with the facility set to get to work in April.