About woodSMART
woodSMART is a program of the Canadian Wood Council.
Purpose
To support post-secondary institutions, educators, and students to ensure future architects, engineers, and construction professionals have the up-to-date knowledge and skillset in the design, manufacture, and assembly of advanced wood buildings.
Why
Currently, most post-secondary design and construction curricula focuses on concrete and steel. More wood design content is needed so new graduates are familiar with the specialized knowledge of wood design and construction. This is important as Canada’s forests are one of our greatest carbon sequestration tools. Our sustainably managed forests, and the wood building materials they produce, naturally create an endless cycle of carbon absorption and storage.
Additionally, advanced engineered wood materials and sophisticated fabrication technologies are facilitating increasingly larger, and taller, wood structures in denser urban areas. Prefabrication and other industrialized building processes that utilize large structural elements are creating promising opportunities for wood construction and re-shaping the ways that buildings are planned, designed, and constructed.
How
Collaborating with universities and colleges to help increase the availability, and content, of wood design courses through:
- Continued development of up-to-date curriculum and other teaching resources that are freely available to Canadian educators.
- Create, engage, and support a network of wood educators
- Ensure additional resources are available for students
- Improve student’s awareness of the benefits for studying wood design and construction