TimberFever 2024.
What started as a small competition, with only eight teams made up of one university, has grown tremendously over the last 10 years – hosting 96 students from 10 different universities, producing 16 teams. TimberFever is an engineering and architecture competition where students work with one another to design and build a timber structure. Initially founded by structural engineer David Moses back in 2015, TimberFever was designed to inspire and encourage conversations between engineers and architects in the industry.
“It’s been a pleasure to see it develop,” says Shanuja Nagarathinam an associate engineer at Moses Structural Engineers, who has been a part of TimberFever for the last nine years. “It’s more and more students every time.” The competition spans three days. The first day is for design and the second is for construction and building logistics. The third and final day focuses on the finishing touches and the anticipated award ceremony – where the winning team is awarded a cash prize of $1,500.
TimberFever 2024.
Every year, students are tasked with a unique and challenging design brief that includes the rules and guidelines for competition. This year’s specifically focused on homelessness and building cabin communities with Two Step Homes, a nonprofit corporation founded to help resolve the unsheltered crisis in Toronto. Together, teams made of five or six students must create a timber shelter that fits within the guidelines of the brief. The structures are then judged by a panel of architects, engineers and industry leaders. “It’s important to have a non-restrictive theme,” says Moses, who encourages participants to be as creative as they’d like.
“It’s a great dynamic and we’re bouncing ideas off each other,” says Laurentian University architecture student, Ashleigh Leung. Toronto Metropolitan University architecture student, Ariya Chib, echoes Leung’s sentiment. “This is a great opportunity for us to experience what it is like to work together.”
Carpenters’ Local 27 volunteers joined the students on-site and provided their expertise on design construction. “Local 27 has been a huge help,” says Zoe Baird, a structural designer with Moses Structural Engineers. “We couldn’t have gotten this done without them.” A Carpenter of 12 years, Niel Jespersen has been mentoring TimberFever students for the last three competitions. “It’s really enjoyable to see everyone working together,” says Jespersen, who helps students with using the tools properly and creating flex loads, columns and beams.
Jonathan Mock, intermediate structural engineer and Zoe Baird, structural designer with Moses Structural Engineers.
The whole event is produced, hosted and developed by the Moses Structural Engineer staff and typically takes six to seven months to plan. The biggest takeaway for Moses Structural Engineers is seeing the students who participated in the beginning years join the industry now as professionals – typically with an interest in wood or timber design. “Some of them even come back as mentors,” says Nagarathinam. “Which is always nice to see.”
Completed TimberFever structures. Image courtesy of TimberFever.