South Korean Big Builders Gathers for Mass Timber Workshop
Earlier last month, Canada Wood Korea hosted the 2nd technical workshop at K-Hotel Seoul focused on mass timber construction, Nail-laminated Timber and Wood infill wall technologies. The event was co-organized with the Korea Institute of Building Construction (KIC), targeting its member companies most of which are large builders and contractors. The workshop was attended by leading chaebol builders, including Lotte Engineering, Woomi Construction and DaeWoo E&C.
In recent years, mass timber has gained recognition in South Korea. This movement is being spurred by South Korea’s green and carbon policies that encourage the use of wood in the construction sector. A positive sign is the Korean government recently eliminated prescriptive height restrictions for wood structures and adopted performance-based practices. South Korea’s construction industry is highly concentrated by conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai, E&C and Lotte. Those powerful entities play a central role in Korea’s mainstream construction market, especially in mid and tall rise building segments. By expanding our engagement with KIC we open the door to engage with big builders and expose them to the use of wood in taller wood buildings.
The workshop was presented by S.Y.Choi of Kawa Architects, S.H.Wang of SOSOL Architects, Tae Hwang-Program Manager of Canada Wood Korea and Ph.D. K.B.Shim, Manager of National Institute of Forest Science. Prof. Y.D. Lee, Honorary Chair of KIC opened the workshop, Ph.D. Joseph Park, Director of Case R&D introduced the KIC Wood building committee and Prof. T.W. Kang of Dankook University moderated the event.