One of the TallWood project collaborators, Eric McDonnell, started supporting the project at KPFF. Then in the middle of the project, he changed his job to Holmes USA to help start their operation on the West Coast. When I arrived in NZ, I found out that Eric has moved to Christchurch, still serving as their Mass Timber Director. So I called him up and arranged a visit to Holmes office in Christchurch. But a drink first... going to a pub seems to be a common lifestyle thing in Christchurch, a lot of people and families there 🤗
Then I biked across the city to go to the Holmes office. It is housed within some warehouse industrial park. They have the office in one building, and their labs in another. It is quite fascinating to see how Homles is working on multiple innovative R&D projects and IPs at the same time, and at the same time doing design and consulting for real building projects. The model of their business is a R&D firm with a design/consulting side line. But the design and consulting on the real jobs gave them ideas to pursue in R&D. It is a very cool model and I can see how people enjoyed working there. Also it seems like folks in NZ have a better culture in work-life balance, people seem to be pretty chill there. So if you want to do R&D in NZ, Holmes might not be a bad idea 😎
The company will force you to take your vacation if you dont use it at the end of the year...
I cannot show you their IP projects stuff, but these are some test equipment they have for seismic and fire...
New Zealand is known for their exotic animals, with Kiwi bird being the most famous. So how can I stay there for a month without seeing the bird live? On one of the weekend, I went to a place called Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, which is pretty much a small zoo. The issue is Kiwis are nocturnal animals that dont come out during the day. So this place even built a "dark room" for Kiwis so we can see them active. It is hard to find them and you need to rely on sounds... But I was lucky to get a glimpse of all their 4 Kiwis in the room
Aside from the Kiwis, there are other unique animals. Such as Capybara, Valais sheep and Silver Pheasant. Plus much more...
It is a nice park to visit if you are in Christchurch!
New Zealand is also well known for its unique plants. I am no botanist but surely can appreciate exotic plant viewing:) There is a Botanic Garden right by Hagley park. It is close to winter when I arrive, so the garden is not too over the top, but it does have a number of green houses hosting tropical plants.
Botanic garden is a good way to spend an afternoon in Christchurch
Your story is off to a good start!
I guess you will have to visit some churches if you are in Christchurch... The church I visited are very similar to typical American protestant church, basically they have a band and are doing websites and with all modern gadgets. They also held group buffet dinner where community members bring homemade food... I cheap out and just grabbed some fried chicken from near by store, but kids loved it I guess (did not even get one myself! 🤨 )
There are old catholic churches also but I never went to the service. The most famous church in downtown, well, is still in repairing process after 13 years. Just when I was there, I heard that they ran out of $$ and the project has to stop again.
Around the end of May, my class finally ended. So now I upgraded my transportation from bike to a rental car (remember I said there are a bunch of Japanese cars here? guess what I got). I am not doing any crazy off-roading @spryor so this fuel-efficient small Suzuki will do!
I dont have plan for big road trips, but mainly to visit nearby town and get used to drive on the left (a must have skill for my next destination...)
In fact I only rented the car for about 5 days or so. But the rental price is dirt-cheap compared to the U.S. Basically everything including full-insurance was just a bit over $200.... Of course I did it at a more local discount type of place called Jucy. If you go with international rental brand it will be more.
The plan is to drive around and see following places, which is not very accessible without a car (NZ public transportation is really not that convenient)
First location is Akaroa, a beautiful harbor town mostly for boating and tourists. But since it is about winter time, there is not that many people there. It was a nice drive across the mountain. The town was quiet and nice, not too much action. Just walk along the shore a bit.
After visiting Akaroa, I went to 2 friends' places. One is a $M+ home at a mountain side along the beach, which reminds me of San Diego. This is a neighborhood called Sumner to the southeast of Christchurch. This is the view from the backyard on a cloudy day. Just imagine if weather is nice. No need to say more 🤩 . Later we went out for a drink but I can only do non-acholic beer due to me driving... Frankly it tasted pretty good.
Another friend is not as affluent. The home is old but cozy. He is also quite handy and is trying to add a room in the backyard. He is also doing some gardening. Some other friends also came and we had lunch together, food is good too.
I guess the morale of the story is you can enjoy life either you have $ or not.
I was invited to a dinner at a host professor's farm on the outskirt of Christchurch at the beginning of the trip. We had a good time but it was quite dark when we get there. I wanted to take a look at his farm so I went back during the day when I got the rental car.
This is basically a farm house on a few acres. He used to have goats but now they are all gone. So only about 200 chickens left. He has quite a variety of chicken species. Some are quite beautiful!
I really enjoyed hanging out with Greg and his Chickens! another amazing aspect of living in NZ I guess. people here seem to be a bit more laid back than the U.S. 🙂 You can feel that in both industry and academia.
Then, before I take off, I had to go to PTL and visit Andy Buchanan's group. Basically that was where the use of PT on timber system starts... We had a brief meeting at the PTL office and took a picture with the main engineering team. They started the company more than a decade ago to hold the patent, but since NZ market is not too large, they expanded the service to also do other aspects of mass timber projects, such as fire consulting.
Andy retired from UC a long time ago, and only work part time at PTL. His passion is really hiking the NZ mountains. He got a new book published about the mountain ranges there. So if you are a hiker, check it out! He is really passionate about this when we talked. It stuck me that He is more like a mountaineer stumbled into a "wrong" structural engineering profession... 🤣
After about 6 weeks in New Zealand, I am finally about to leave for the next destination. This is a great experience as I was able to get familiar with the wood codes in NZ and interact with a lot of colleagues. Christchurch is a small town but definitely has its charm. It would be nice if I can visit during summer time but we will see. University of Canterbury is a great host and I really appreciate their accommodation in the department. They are hiring people in wood engineering and has ongoing searches when I was there. Later I heard the position was suspended by the Admin.... Like all universities, there are a lot of restrictions from Admin who dont really teach but like to call the shoots....
At the end of my stay, I visited Lyttelton, which is a commercial harbor where NZ actually export their lumber by sea. It is great to see how they just pile raw logs on the huger tankers. I recall in 2012 during WCTE in Auckland, some high level government official from NZ spoke and mentioned NZ would like to export more value added wood products instead of just log. I guess they are still working on that...
So I packed up, said good-bye to my new friends, visited the U. Canterbury Club house where famous murder case happened (movie "Heavenly Creatures" based on true story, featuring Kate Winslet), and got ready for Japan.
On June 13th, I took off from Christchurch to Osaka. University of Canterbury is a great host. Really appreciate all the help and accommodations there, like this 3 floor 2 bdrm rental house with a back patio... I was not able to use too much of that since I am just by myself. I have heard some stories from visiting scholars in the past about living in some older homes, and the condition is not too good. Rest assured that the accommodation has greatly improved at UC, feel free to go and enjoy New Zealand if you get an invitation! UC also covered my flight to NZ from the US, and when they knew I am leaving for Japan, they also booked my flight to Japan. 🤩
NZ is kind of middle of nowhere from a world map. Auckland is a bigger airport and have direct flight to Japan. Christchurch not so much, plus my destination is not Tokyo, but Kansai airport in Osaka. So I did a transfer in Singapore, which is a very nice airport. They have live plants and flower gardens in the airport, as well as a butterfly pavilion! Easily one of the most amazing terminals I have ever seen...
The amenities are also great. They even have a Chinese food street inside the terminal, the price is really reasonable too! Got a nice Chinese style dinner (or lunch?? I have no idea 😏 )
After 16 hours, I was finally at the train terminal in Kansai international airport, ready to ride the Hello Kitte Haruka express to Kyoto
Very well-planned sabbatical trip. Glad to share some time with you in Japan.
My host in Japan is Professor Hiroshi Isoda at Kyoto University. At one of the top 2 universities in Japan (two-Kyo: Tokyo and Kyoto), KU is the best research school in Japan (U of Tokyo is known for politicians and business, Kyoto U is know for scientists). The research lab led by Isoda-san is focused on Wood building systems. Being in Japan, that means a ton of seismic research and shake table tests!
They have an entire 3 story office building dedicated for wood group (a wood building of course...)
Firstly, paperwork. The lab secretary and students helped me to finish needed paperwork at local government offices and postal bank. Japanese offices are very organized and polite, so basically imaging the best DMV experience you had, and times that by 10. Oh, I forgot to mention I had to also get a taxID in New Zealand, which took a bit of effort and maybe 3 different visits of 2 different offices. But in Japan, we did everything in one afternoon:) Probably mainly thanks to the student and secretary's help.
Look, they even got anime character (Chihaya Hime, Lady Tea, mascot of Uji city) on the waiting number card!
Japan. Land of the rising sun, anime and game kingdom, powerhouse of Asian culture. I am specifically attracted to their tradition and workmanship, especially on wood construction. So my sabbatical involves a lot of site-seeing of ancient temples, castles, and shrines. It is a vacation also, as my family joined me there for part of the trip.
If you want to see wood buildings in Japan, you have to come to Kansai area (Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe). Tokyo has temples but a lot of them are made of concrete due to the extensive Fire Bombing during WWII. Kyoto was spared from the air raid by the U.S., so a ton of wood buildings still around.
Well, Japan trip was so much I dont know where to even start, so maybe the way to do it is to write this as a tour-guide type: One attraction at a time:)
1. Mimuroto-ji Temple is within walking distance to Kyoto U Uji campus, the temple is old but they have a very modern rabbit sculpture at the front. There is a stone egg in the sculpture and people line up to touch it for good luck (I guess?). Looking at wood buildings and details hundreds of years old versus the rabbit... it is a bit wired...
The traditional wood column joints can be seen at the temple bell tower. It is a common detail to join columns together without any metal fasteners.
What the place is really famous for is the flowers in the temple, it has a garden with 10,000 hydrangeas... I think I was a bit late in the game when I arrive, but you can probably find best pictures of the garden online. I am only posting photos I took:) The lotus flowers are so beautiful it almost looks unreal! 🤩
2. Tsukuba City, Science city of Japan. It is located about 1 hour from Tokyo to the North East. You can take a direct train from Akihabara Station.
It is called Science city because a lot of national research institute and private company R&D centers are located here. Specifically, there is Japan's Building Research Institute (BRI), a governmental organization focusing on building research. They have a few shake tables where my host Isoda-san conducts tests all the time. The tables there are much more economical in cost when compared with E-Defense.
Even the sewer hole cover is very "sciency" 😎 I also met another old friend Kawaii-san for dinner there!
Wait, I was in Kansai area near Kyoto, right? That is the beauty of Japan!! My host Isoda-san had a shake table test in Tsukuba at one of the BRI shake tables, so I just took the Shinkansen and visited the testing site. However, since the test is for private company, no photo allowed... But one of Isoda-san's former students now works at BRI. He gave me a tour around the facility and showed some different labs.
The HUGE BRI lab space gives you a Neon Genesis Evangelion feeling (You feel you are in Nerv, if you dont know what I am talking about, it is OK... just google it). We also have traditional testing frames. We saw they are installing a fully electric shake table 😯. and people are doing some CLT wall tests...A lot is going on!
I stayed in Tsukuba for 2 days, watched the test (which is a 2 story full-scale building test, went smoothly...) then headed back to Kyoto
3. Nara-Todaiji Temple
When I was in college, we play RTS games (Real Time Strategy, a great game genre that is dying nowadays 😥 ) such as Star Craft and Age of Empire. In Age of Empire II (or III?), you can win by building a world wonder belonging to your chosen civilization and defend it for 100 years (in game time of course, we are not crazy... 😆 ). Each civilization has unique wonder building that cost a huge amount of resources and time to build, but actually does nothing, except to be defended... Guess what is the Wonder building for Japan?
I visited this place multiple times, so I am going to spare you about the common things everyone talks about, like the deer and big buddha statue. I really enjoyed looking at huge old wood members.... You got a solid wood column that's been there for a few hundred years, then a "composite" column that were built up using wood and metal fasteners (there is a hole in one of the columns that people craw through for good luck. I can see the cross section of the column there...). A net work of large gravity beam-column grid and no dedicated lateral system?! It is a wonder that this huge building (taller than my 10-story test structure...) survived so many years in such a high seismic region!
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