Apr
24
5:00pm
KF Aerospace Centre for Excellence: Pioneering Long-Span Timber Design
By WoodWorks
Overview:
Shaped as an aircraft, the KF Aerospace Centre for Excellence is a legacy museum and event space for Kelowna’s largest private employer, KF Aerospace. A central 2-storey hub “fuselage” is flanked by two wing-shaped hangars which house historical planes. The building showcases the latest in structural innovation and mass timber construction throughout the superstructure. From wing-shaped hangar roofs to a highly unique doubly curved CLT spiral staircase, a creative approach to structural engineering was pivotal to the design of this project.
From the start, KFCE was conceptualized with mass timber as a focus. The founder wanted to create a building with the look and feel of an airplane, while using British Columbia’s natural resources. As a result, most of the building’s superstructure uses timber: long-span hybrid timber-steel trusses in the hangars and conference space, cross-laminated timber (“CLT”) shear walls, mass timber-framed exhibition hall and a curved timber spiral stair. StructureCraft, as Structural Engineer of Record and Timber Design-Builder, was brought on to make the design vision a structural reality. The building was designed to invite visitors in – it faces the Kelowna International Airport and is entirely glazed on the front portion. Special attention was paid to the glass hangar doors, which span 115 ft and can fully open to allow the entry of aircraft into the space.
Learning Objectives:
- The potential applications of timber in long-span structures, discerning its viability and advantages in various contexts;
- Using local, sustainable materials efficiently;
- Recent research & development into the use of timber-concrete composite and queen-posted dowel laminated timber; and
- Designing for manufacture and assembly.
About the Speaker: Drew Willms
Drew is an experienced Business Development Engineer with 10 years of experience working in pre-construction project management and estimating, as well as developing and coordinating new project opportunities. He has led StructureCraft’s estimating effort on institutional and commercial mass timber projects across North America and Asia and heads up the company’s Footbridge division. Drew is also responsible for early project engineering and 3D design, working in collaboration with the firm’s engineering department.
He joined StructureCraft after 4 years as a Regional Engineer at one of Canada’s largest civil infrastructure companies, where he coordinated the design and site supervision efforts for bridge structure installations across the Pacific Northwest. Drew is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s Civil Engineering program.
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