TimberFever 2025
TimberFever (external link) is a Design-Build Competition that brings together 16 teams of undergraduate architecture and engineering students from across North America.
This year, the students collaborated to respond to the theme of Third Places; the spaces between home and work where people gather, connect and build community.
We asked the students: What does a third place mean to you, and how can it serve the community?
Our participants are coming from universities with diverse city contexts and have brought their unique perspectives on Third Spaces into their designs. Those universities include Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Toronto, McMaster University, York University, Carleton University, McGill University, University of Ottawa, Roger Williams University, and University of Michigan.
TimberFever was very intense, but it made engineering feel real. Building our design taught me more about teamwork and structures, more than any lecture has.
This year’s TimberFever was actually my first design-build experience. I really enjoyed collaborating with people I had never met before and learning how to bring our different skills together as a team.
This event would not be possible without the incredible support of our community! We’d like to thank Moses Structural Engineering and our amazing sponsors for bringing TimberFever to life for the past 11 years. Thank you to our guest speakers, Luke Anderson from StopGap and Noheir Elgendy, adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, as well as all our industry professionals who took the time to come and mentor our participants. A special thanks to Carpenters’ Local 27 and the TMU Workshop Technicians, Jason Ramelson and Filip Tisler, for guiding the participants in their construction phase. Finally, we are very grateful to our Team 17 and volunteers, whose dedication made this year’s competition unforgettable.
Each year, TimberFever continues to grow, inspiring our next generation of architects and engineers to sustainably design for their community and innovate with timber. We look forward to seeing how this experience continues to influence our participants' academic and professional future.
