Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Minister Pat Bell hammered in the final nail today in a three-storey apartment building to open the seventh annual Green Building Show, a three-day conference showcasing green, energy-efficient construction.
The “Green Home Canada” display is part of an ongoing marketing strategy to increase the use of B.C. wood in walk-up apartment buildings in China.
The Green Home Canada modular building uses B.C. wood and was assembled in three days by Suzhou Crownhomes Co. to showcase the ease and efficiency of wood frame construction. The building is situated at a main entrance to the Beijing International Convention Centre and includes a boardroom for Bell and B.C. trade mission delegates to meet with Chinese investors and customers.
The building features exterior finishing on the front side, along with interior decorating in one of the suites. The construction shell has been left exposed on the upper two levels to demonstrate the wood-frame walls, floors, stairs, trusses and other building-system components.
The walk-up apartment sector, which represents B.C.’s biggest potential breakthrough in the Chinese housing market, has a growing interest in wood-frame construction. China averages as many as seven million housing-unit starts per year in the walk-up apartment style. In its latest national five-year plan, the Chinese government committed to building 10 million affordable housing units in 2011.
The Green Home Canada display is also another step to strengthen relations with the Chinese central government’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD).
The modular apartment is part of an agreement signed last March by the Province of British Columbia, Government of Canada, and MOHURD. In a follow-up meeting last November, B.C. and Canada committed to demonstrating the speed, ease, and environmental benefits of modular wood-frame construction at the Green Building Show sponsored by MOHURD.