Canadian Wood Villa, a step towards sustainable housing

HYDERABAD: Forestry Innovation Investment (FII), popularly known as Canadian Wood, a Crown agency of the provincial government of British Columbia (B.C) Canada and MAK Projects unveiled the Canadian Wood Villa, to promote sustainable and beautiful living spaces, on Tuesday.

Canadian Wood ventured into the Indian market to suit the needs of Indian terrains and conditions. The Villa is located at BTR Greens, a high-end gated community on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The project was led by MAK Projects with technical support, training and project management inputs provided by FII.

The Canadian Wood villa was inaugurated by Telangana Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali, along with the Guest of Honour Cameron Mackay, High Commissioner of Canada in India.

The project commenced in October 2021 and was completed in less than 12 months.

Country Director of Canadian Wood in India, Pranesh Chhibber, said; "A growing awareness of the relationship between human health, the environment and the economy has led to a fast-evolving concept of sustainable wood homes in India. It's a highly responsible decision on part of MAK to choose certified Canadian wood species sourced from sustainably managed forests of British Columbia. We expect this collaboration with MAK Projects will spawn many more such eco-friendly projects in the coming months and years across India."

Commenting on the collaboration Promoter and Managing Director, MAK Projects Pvt. Ltd, Dr. Nawab Mir Nasir Ali Khan, said," Wood is a sustainable, renewable, and natural building material. Wood can simultaneously achieve reduced carbon emissions, bring about increased sustainability in a building's life cycle, and offer improved occupant well-being. As compared to concrete and steel, it offers high strength-to-weight ratio and excellent design flexibility. Wood is known to be a very good insulator of heat and cold and is 15 times better than concrete and 400 times better than steel."

What makes the Villa a Canadian Wood palace

The villa was spread over a sprawling plot area of 15,000 sq.ft. with built-up area of 6,000 sq ft over two levels with a large leisure and living area, kitchen, pantry, four bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, gymnasium, games room, AV room, outdoor sitting, and expansive outdoor dining area.

It combined light wood frame construction with mass timber and prefabricated construction technologies. This technique optimised the building process by helping reduce the time and cost involved in the construction process. The villa was almost entirely made from a variety of sustainably sourced and certified wood species from British Columbia, Canada, including Spruce-pine-fir (S-P-F), Western red cedar, Yellow cedar and Western hemlock.

The extensive use of wood in the structure has resulted in 481 metric tonnes of reduced carbon footprint in the project-the equivalent of removing 102 cars from the road for a year. Additionally, residents benefit from the timber home's biophilic features. The design of the house is evocative of the well-known Canadian West coast style, with a delicate mix of natural materials like masonry, stone, and a variety of wood applications such as a gently sloping hipped roofline, double-height cathedral ceilings, exposed natural timber and glulam beams, broad overhanging eaves, and covered outdoor decking.