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Project: FondAction Building Quebec
Location: Quebec City, Quebec
Architect: GHA Architecture et Développement Durable
Owner: FondAction CSN pour la coopération et l’emploi
The structure of this six-floor, 60,000 ft2 office building is composed entirely of FSC-certified glued-laminated wood. Having substituted wood for the more typical steel and concrete structure, the FondAction building is now the tallest wood structure building in North America.
The final building integrates about 415 MBF of wood, of which approximately one-half are structural glu-lams, while over 200 MBF remain uncovered and therefore visible in the floors and ceilings. FSC-certified wood is showcased throughout the building’s interior, including the doors and door frames, architectural walls and wall coverings, and a suspended wooden ceiling in the main entrance. The building is a magnificent celebration of wood—and sustainably forested wood!
The use of high-quality engineered wooden glu-lams for the building structure not only eliminated the need for almost two times the volume of concrete, but also made use of spruce heads abandoned on the forest floor by the lumber industry and will provide natural insulation that will reduce energy consumption for the life of the building.
The project team was inspired by an International Panel on Climate Change report that found using structural wood instead of concrete and steel in construction is an effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Considering only its construction phase, this building succeeded in producing a net carbon reduction of 1350 tons of CO2, the greenhouse gas equivalent produced by 270 cars in one year.
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