The World Conference on Timber Engineering will be held from 15-19 July 2012 in Auckland hosted by New Zealand and Australian timber engineers. It is the next in a series of world timber conferences that have taken place in Italy, Japan, the US, Finland, Malaysia, Canada, Switzerland and England. Source: Timberbiz
The Auckland conference has generated so much interest that more than 450 abstracts have been accepted and there will be close to 300 presentations from delegates who come from 36 different countries.
The conference spans three full days, each with its own theme and keynote speaker. In addition to the publicized speakers, 294 others will be presenting on various topics. All together there will be six parallel sessions at all times.
The theme for the Monday is Practical Engineering Problems and Solutions and the keynote speaker is the world-renowned Professor Hans Blass from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Professor Blass’s keynote lecture will cover the topics of glulam beam reinforcement and of optimized timber trusses and connections using adapted cross-laminated panel technology.
The theme for the Tuesday is Design for Extreme Events and the keynote speaker is the Canadian structural timber engineer Robert Malczyk.
Malczyk’s keynote lecture is Post Disaster Serviceability Issues for Timber Buildings. Currently, typical structural designs do not directly address the post disaster serviceability issues of timber buildings.
Wednesday is the architects’ day and so is titled Creative Use of Timber Products and the keynote speaker is the architect Peter Busby, Managing Director of Perkins+Will, one of the largest design firms in North America.
As a director of Perkins+Will since 2004, Peter’s role includes sustainable design leadership to the firm’s 23 offices worldwide. He is a founder and recent chair of the Canada Green Building Council.
To close the conference on the Thursday the theme of the day is the Future of Timber Engineering.
More information can be found at wcte2012.com
