Xijiao Club House

Completed in October 2018, the Xijiao Club House can be found inside Shanghai’s Xijiao State Guest Hotel, a five-star hotel famous for hosting high-profile banquets and other events for world leaders. This new wooden banquet hall, which was supported by Canada Wood China since the beginning of its design stage, is a remarkable achievement of wood design and construction in China.

The building’s design, blending beautifully into its woodland environment, evokes a row of trees growing from ground to ceiling. The six leaf-shaped roofs perch lightly on a supporting structure of Douglas-fir glulam beams. Each roof is made of novel prefabricated flap structural panels of SPF, arranged in a triangulated wave pattern. SPF is also used in the building’s infill walls, which thermally insulates the architecture. The cozy indoor decor, primarily featuring Hemlock, expresses the wood’s warm natural beauty. The entire building uses about 212 m³ of Canadian wood, equalling a total potential carbon reduction of about 557 tonnes.

Canada Wood China stepped in to support this project during its design phase in 2017. Once construction started in May 2018, Canada Wood provided weekly on-site training for builders and inspectors, in order to ensure the delivery of quality construction. Prefabricating the wood structure offsite allowed the onsite construction to be completed in an efficient and timely manner, while minimizing any damage caused to the surrounding area. The project went smoothly under Canada Wood’s supervision and was completed within five months.

This project is the outcome of a long-term partnership between Canada Wood China and the Donghu Group, one of Shanghai’s three state-owned tourism groups and a pioneer in terms of building with wood. The Xijiao Club House was highly acclaimed within the industry, and the first meeting it hosted included Microsoft founder Bill Gates and China’s then-First Lady Peng Liyuan.

Funding for this project is provided through Natural Resources Canada