Canada Tsuga Used in the Heartland of Domestic Wood

By: Scott Anderson

Canada Wood Japan / APA representative

Canada Wood staff recently visited a large elderly care home job site in the heartland of domestic wood production, Miyazaki Prefecture, and were happy to discover that treated Canada Tsuga (hemlock) was used for sill plates (Dodai) for this project. The Nursing Home Kumoitoso is a semi-fireproof 2×4 structure being built in Takachiho, a rural area between Oita City and Miyazaki City. When completed, this 1-storey building will be 2,776 m² (app. 29,882 ft²) in size and will house over 60 people. The architect for this project was Yoshitaka Architects, Engineers & Consultants, and the wooden structural materials were supplied by Wing (Kyushu). The Canada Tsuga Dodai installed were 4 m lengths in 4×4 sizes, with a total volume of 39.1120 m³ utilized. Our visit was a total “Team Canada” effort as we were also joined by staff from the Canadian Embassy and the Canadian Government Trade Office, Fukuoka. Although there is domestic wood being used in this project, this visit provided Canada Wood with an opportunity to showcase how our products can also offer structural solutions for these types of large non-residential projects.