The Qingchuan "Vancouver Village"
Sustainable Housing Project
Project Background
MOU Signing between Minister Pat Bell and Qingchuan City Officials.
In November, 2008, Canada Wood and the Qingchuan municipal government jointly announced the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) to develop the "Vancouver Village" Sustainable Housing Project. The signing of the agreement signals an important step towards the introduction of wood frame construction systems into reconstruction plans for Qingchuan City. This was followed by a further announcement from the Canadian and British Columbia governments of an $8 million donation to the post-earthquake Sichuan reconstruction project.
According to the agreement, the "Vancouver Village" project in Qingchuan will be implemented in three phases, using Canadian wood frame building technology to build a North American-style sustainable housing community. Phase One includes the construction of three wood frame residential houses in Guanzhuang Township, to be used for WFC technical training and other public services. Phase Two includes assisting residents of Guanzhuang and other key townships to build 300 to 500 wood frame houses by the end of 2009. Phase Three outlines assistance with the wood frame construction of multi-family, multi-story buildings as part of the reconstruction of other townships within Qingchuan. Under the partnership, Canada Wood is responsible for providing quality assurance, technical training/transfer, and funding for the design and construction of the Phase One wood frame houses.
The three low-cost demonstration houses will be located in Guangzhuan, a picturesque village in Qingchuan County, set within a river valley carved with terraced mountainside farms. The demo houses will range from 80m² to 220 m², and were designed to be seismically safe and suit the local lifestyle. The houses are required to meet a target price of less than 800 RMB/m².
From left to right, the renderings above show the 80 m², 120 m², and 240 m² two-story demo houses
Wood frame construction is widely recognized as one of the best earthquake-resistant building solutions for the following reasons:
- Wood frame buildings have numerous load paths and are considered structurally redundant - providing an extra level of safety during earthquakes.
- Wood frame construction is lightweight. Since the destructive forces of an earthquake are proportional to the weight of a structure, properly-designed lightweight wood frame buildings can be expected to perform very well during an earthquake.
 The Canada Wood College has established a builder training course in Deyang, Sichuan, in response to growing demand for skilled wood frame builders in the Sichuan area after the devastating earthquake. The course is designed to train students in the Western China region to become professional carpenters with a high level of technical skill.
To apply for the course, please click the following link to download the application form, or contact Freedy Lu of the Canada Wood Shanghai Office directly.
http://www.canadawood.cn/college/index.php
If you are interested in Canadian 2x4 construction in the Sichuan area, please contact the Canada Wood technical department for more information. We would be happy to provide you, at no charge, with design sketches of the three Phase One demo houses, a Guide to Good Practice Manual, and other information, as needed.
|
