On February 2nd the artistic elements to be used in the Victory Celebrations for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games were unveiled by BC Premier Gordon Campbell and VANOC CEO John Furlong at televised press events at the VANOC Main Press Centre and the Robson Square BC Showcase Centre. The most prominent of these were the podiums that athletes will stand upon to receive their medals. Constructed of a multitude of solid vertical wood elements topped by a white "hockey pond"-like surface, the shape of the podia bring to mind the coastline of Vancouver Island, while the materials used boldly symbolize the importance of forests to British Columbia's citizens.
The unveiling marks the completion of several months of intensive effort by a team at UBC’s Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP), which played a central role in creating the 23 distinctive wooden medal ceremony podia and 84 medal trays that will soon be seen on the world stage. The CAWP team was led by wood manufacturing specialist Vincent Leung and included technical staff and current and past students of UBC’s award-winning B.Sc. Wood Products Processing program. The team utilized the state-of-the-art MasterCAM computer-aided-design software and SCM computer-numerical-control processing centres in the CAWP manufacturing lab to program and cut the more-than-250 unique parts required for each of the podia.
CAWP was approached by Olympic organizers and the BC Ministry of Forests and Range in the fall of 2009 to lend its manufacturing expertise to the project. The 23 podia were created using 18 distinct natively-grown BC wood species, donated by community forests from across the province. The raw lumber was first sent to a Vancouver millwork company where it was dried and fabricated into edge-glued panels. At CAWP, these panels were then converted to jigsaw puzzle-like sets of parts, which were provided to the Rona 2010 Fabrication Shop in East Vancouver for assembly. The distinctive Douglas Fir trays on which the medals will be borne to the podium were also created using CNC equipment at CAWP.
"The Olympic medal podium project perfectly symbolizes the high technology and sophisticated design that is increasingly prevalent in today’s woodworking industry", says CAWP Managing Director Iain Macdonald. “It is exactly these aspects, together with the sustainable nature of the wood resource itself, that attract people to the exciting and varied careers in our sector. For this reason we were delighted to be involved”. The high-profile project was not without its challenges however. “The lead times were extremely tight, and we had to plan very carefully to satisfy ourselves that we could complete the work on time” admits technical lead Vincent Leung. “When we first agreed to participate some of the raw materials were still standing trees, and this of course brought its share of drying and warping issues". The many different individual, team and Paralympic podium designs were also extremely complex, and some designs needed to be modified to reduce weight for ease of movement at the venues. Nonetheless, at the end of the day the tireless efforts of Leung and his team paid off, and the completed podia were handed over to Olympic organizers in good time for shipment to each of the sports venues and Victory Celebration plazas.
In a second Olympic project, UBC Wood Products Processing students and industrial design students from Emily Carr University worked together on a unique class project in which they designed and built outdoor furniture that will be used in the Athlete’s Villages in Vancouver and Whistler, as well as at several Games venues. The experience gave undergraduates invaluable firsthand experience in designing and manufacturing to professional design criteria. “We pride ourselves on giving our students as much real-world experience and practical knowledge as possible,” says Macdonald. “This project went one step further however - seeing the fruits of their labour displayed on the world stage is just great inspiration.”
For more information you can check out this press release on the Office of the Premiere website.