Timber House
Project Overview
Timber House is a first-of-its-kind housing prototype developed in partnership with the Nak’azdli Whuten community near Fort St. James, British Columbia. Fully prefabricated and built from mass timber, the project demonstrates how Indigenous communities can construct high-quality homes using wood harvested from their own lands, reimagining a resource that has long left the community as logs into finished building panels that stay and serve the community.
Quick Facts
Fort St. James, British Columbia
Community
First-Of-Its-Kind Housing Prototype
The system transforms locally sourced aspen into densified, nail-laminated panels, milled and fabricated at a local plant just minutes from the community before being assembled on location in a matter of days. The two-storey show home features three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a loft, and an open-concept living area, with mass timber left exposed on three sides to celebrate the material as both structure and finish. Following its time as a model home, it will be given to a Nak’azdli family or elder.
This house means security not only in housing, but in economics and community longevity… We have limited economics in Fort St. James and to create a secondary industry with our timber is something that’s been a long time coming and we’re hoping to see success in this pilot project.”
– Nak’azdli Whuten member Elky Taylor
For a community that has lived through multiple mill closures and the steady departure of raw logs from its territory, Timber House represents something more than a housing prototype. It is a model for economic resilience — creating local skills, local jobs, and a secondary industry built on the community’s own timber. The panel system is flexible and scalable, designed to address housing supply challenges across northern communities. Innotech’s high-performance windows and doors are integrated throughout, delivering exceptional thermal efficiency, durability, and year-round comfort suited to the climate of northern British Columbia.
