Fourth-year Carleton architecture student Steph Bolduc took first place in an Ontario woodwork design competition, and was awarded $7,000 at a ceremony in Toronto Nov. 4.

The Ontario Wood Works Student Wood Product Design Competition, in its fourth year, is sponsored by the Canadian Wood Council (CWC) and challenges college and university applicants to create an innovative and marketable wood product.

They must also present a marketing plan with their prototype and a product report.

Through the competition, the council’s aim is to “increase awareness about the benefits of wood construction,” said Sarah Hicks, communication and events co-ordinator for the CWC.

Bolduc’s product, called Metric Wave, is an ergonomically designed, multi-purpose bench.

He said he originally designed and built the plywood structure for an assignment in a materials application workshop in his third-year at Carleton.

“We always do small, theoretical projects,” Bolduc said. “So it was cool to do things that are actually built that we can see being used after a while.”

The third-year workshop, run by architecture professor Sheryl Boyle, does something different every year, Bolduc explained.

Last year, their goal was to turn the small coffee shop in the Architecture Building into an aesthetically cohesive and functional student lounge.

“We were looking at ways to make the whole space blend together,” Bolduc said. “We also wanted to have a lot of seating and we needed a lot of storage, so we had to look for solutions between the two.”

Bolduc said he built his product using computer design technology and computer numerical control production, giving it the added elements of measurement flexibility and cut precision.

“As soon as you have a design, the computer can cut it out for you and piece it together,” Bolduc said. “The whole thing is made of wood too, even the joints.”

According to Hicks, wood “outperforms all other building materials” when it comes to sustainability, making the Metric Wave an environmentally friendly product.

The CWC also awarded the Azrieli School of Architecture $10,000 to support future students in the faculty, Hicks said.

As for the future of his design, Bolduc said he hopes Metric Wave, or some version of it, will be on the market someday.

“Bolduc’s is an architecturally beautiful product,” Hicks said. “That from an aesthetic perspective is very marketable.”

For now, Metric Wave can be found in the student lounge on the main floor of the architecture building.