Vancouver-based architect Arno Matis believes that the BioFrame construction system he developed for renovating existing buildings is a way to avoid many of the problems currently plaguing the construction industry, such as rising construction costs, labour shortages, congested urban areas, and greenhouse gas emissions.

The BioFrame concept brought international acclaim to the Vancouver architecture firm when it won second place in the Radical Innovations Design Awards competition in December 2021, where BioFrame demonstrated how it could be used to renovate and modernise a hotel. The international competition, supported by the hotel management group John Hardy, received more than 100 innovative design ideas for the hospitality industry, three of which made it to the shortlist. The winner and runner-up were honoured at a closing event in New York.

BioFrame can be simplified as an "architectural prosthesis". It is a building system that uses mass timber and relies on prefabricated structures combined with a method of attaching mass timber components to an existing structure.
Photography used courtesy of Arno Matis Architecture