Evolution and Growth: Dream Home Canada Office Relocation and Exciting New Opportunities in the China Market

By: Lance Tao

Communications Manager, Canada Wood Group

The last few months have seen a major transition for China, with the COVID-19 travel restrictions and quarantine requirements being dropped, along with the resumption of regular business, student and tourist visas. As the boarders reopen for travel, we will be adapting our programs for the new dynamics of the market, to better support industry stakeholders. After almost 20 years, we will be moving out of the Dream Home Canada (DHC) building as we look at where we can adjust our programs to a greater awareness of wood construction amongst designers and builders in China, which reflects the success of our work over the years.

Canada Wood China Team (March 30, 2023)

The DHC has acted as a testimonial project that showcased the possibilities of wood construction. It inspired educators, architects and engineers to look at the opportunities to design and build with wood materials. In the most recent 2022 China Wood Project Awards, there were 93 wood building projects presented and many were as sophisticated as the DHC and in some cases surpassed its scale and design. Due to the number of people that have been influenced by the DHC over the years, there are now many new wood projects built across China that can deliver the same inspiration. This is a positive outcome of the early work done in China, including the construction of DHC as a demonstration project.

While our offices will change, our mandate remains the same, to promote the use of wood products in construction and wood-in-manufacturing sectors and to support Canadian wood exports to China. There is still important work to continue to build capacity and expertise in the market, to improve codes & standards for wood buildings, to support technical education and to strengthen government relations for our stakeholders. As a reflection on how the DHC has been an iconic part of our programs in China over the years, the interview with the designer Peter Fu featured last month shares more detail about how the building fits into the evolution of wood construction in China. Click below to read the story: