12 Jun 2025
This month, Marc Woodbury will attend the World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE) in Brisbane – a leading international forum for timber design, research, and construction.
Held every two years, WCTE brings together architects, engineers, researchers, and industry partners from around the world to share developments in timber construction. The 2025 conference explores the role of timber in a circular economy, with themes including climate resilience, adaptive reuse, digital fabrication, and embodied carbon.
Marc’s attendance builds on Studio Pacific’s long-standing involvement in sustainable design and mass timber – a technology both he and the practice have worked with for over 20 years. It’s also a chance to connect with international peers and project partners, including Holmes (Fire and Structural Engineers), who are presenting on the New Zealand Parliament’s West Precinct buildings, a significant collaboration with our team.
Studio Pacific is also named as a co-author on a research paper being presented at the conference, developed by Professor Antony Hoete (University of Auckland) in collaboration with researchers from Tampere University in Finland. The paper looks at the regulatory and operational settings for multi-storey timber housing in Finland and Aotearoa, with the aim of supporting greater adoption of low-carbon building systems.
Mass timber continues to shape our work – from projects like Nelson Airport’s Terminal building to the new Museum Street Building now under construction at Parliament. Both projects show the potential for timber in public and civic architecture. We are always looking to contribute and learn from international approaches and explore ways timber can help deliver better environmental outcomes.
We look forward to sharing reflections from the event.
The Nelson Airport Terminal – a landmark mass-timber project by Studio Pacific, showcasing sustainable design in a busy civic setting. The expressed timber structure brings warmth, rhythm and clarity to the passenger experience.