Is "Lego-like" Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) the future of wood construction?

A new toy store in Ottawa’s west end has been snapped together out of 156 “Lego-like” wooden panels known as Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT). The 16,200-square-foot store, owned by Playvalue Toys, is approximately the 20th structure in Canada to be built out of CLT modular wood panels. They were supplied by the Austrian firm Binderholz. The architect was Rickson Outhet. This is a relatively new technology, first developed in Europe in the 1970s, but only recently beginning to become mainstream. There are significant environmental benefits owing to the use of young, fast-growing trees whose layers are stacked crosswise and glued together.

The CLT panels used on this job measured 28 feet high, four feet wide and five inches thick. They were shipped from Austria to Montreal in nine containers and then trucked to Ottawa.

There are two Canadian suppliers of CLT products, the Ottawa Citizen reports (read the full story here), such as Structurlam in Penticton, B.C., as well as a Quebec supplier, but this project went with the Austrian manufacturer.