Origine

Surrounded by cycling paths and parks in the Pointe-aux-Lièvres area of Quebec City, Origine is the centerpiece of a new neighborhood designed to showcase sustainable development. During construction, the mass timber structure was the tallest wood building of its kind in the world, with 12 stories of residential condominium units (93 in total, from studios to three bedrooms) sitting on a one-story concrete podium containing a gym, a pool, a common living room and a large exterior terrace.

In a highly competitive market for condo construction, the choice of wood for a structure traditionally built of concrete was audacious. The idea behind that decision was to offer a unique product, and the environmental benefits of wood construction mean the project fits well with the eco-conscious development in which it is located. Also, because the site is near the St. Charles River, it has a very poor load-bearing capacity; if the building was made of concrete, it would have been impossible to reach such height. Consequently, mass timber was a practical choice for the structural system, allowing the team to plan a raft foundation system that would support a total of 13 stories. Concrete forms the ground-floor podium, while the primary structure is made of glulam timber posts and beams, with CLT floor slabs, shear walls, shafts and exterior walls. The FSC-certified wood comes from northern Quebec forests and consists mostly of black spruce.

The team had to develop custom solutions for lateral load resistance, which is usually transferred through concrete shear walls, even in wood buildings. In this case, the engineers invented a special shear key – metal plates inserted into prefabricated slotted holes – to hold the loads in the CLT walls. Numerous fire tests and demonstrations were executed to allow the development of this pioneering project, with close collaboration between all involved professionals. Well above code limits at the time, Origine paved the way for taller wood structures in Canada, with its construction helping to develop a guide in Quebec for mass timber buildings of up to 12 stories.