Explore International Innovations in Timber Construction

International House Sydney (IHS) is Australia’s first commercial and largest engineered timber building. The structure utilises a spruce CLT and Glulam structure, including floors, columns, walls, roof, lift shaft and stairs, supplemented with recycled Australian hardwood. Designed by Tzannes architects, IHS is a distinctive new element in the city, intended to establish a warm and welcoming connection between the new harbour precinct of Barangaroo and the heart of the city.

The architecture enhances the amenity and character of the public domain as well as the interior environment for its tenants and visitors by exploring a new form of beauty – one of unique and integral character, authenticity with a fully exposed timber structure stripped of adornment and unnecessary layers of finishing materials to celebrate the timber, all detailed with rigour to be enduring and sophisticated. IHS represents a prized Lendlease asset that has paved the way for the future of timber in this commercial context.

The project was originally intended to be built with a concrete frame. During the development of the design, engineered timber was substituted, on an equivalent cost and building height basis, to become the first engineered timber commercial building in Australia.

The project’s sustainability credentials are on display throughout. The building structure is 100% timber above the ground level, including the lift cores, stairs, risers, floor slabs, roof and walls – and as such is an authentic representation of the potential that engineered timber has to accommodate all elements for a commercial building of this size.

Photo credit: www.theguthrieproject.com

The Monash CLT vertical extension was the first CLT project to be undertaken at an Australian university. As the business school operates strictly for students at postgraduate or executive study levels, NH Architecture wanted to reflect the innovative learning style with an innovative building and material.

With panoramic views across Melbourne, the three-storey pavilion showcases over 300 degree views of the skyline.

The Monash Business School extension brief was for a new pavilion and connecting stairwell to the existing campus. The project called for innovative materials in a symbolic and practical sense. As the vertical extension was to be located on the existing 8th floor concrete terrace, the structure would need to be lightweight in order to be supported by existing foundations. The strength-weight ratio of mass timber over concrete and steel made the three-storey addition possible. The opportunity to use CLT was immediately harnessed by NH Architecture.

The Monash University clients, along with NH Architecture, were keen to expose the timber where possible. The natural beauty of the XLam CLT was expressed openly in the hallway and stairwell area, displaying both structure and finish in a singular materiality. Appearance grade CLT was specified so that raw timber exposure was possible.

Photo credit: XLam Australia

Aurecon sought to create a world class working environment when searching for new office space to relocate its 600 plus people. The timber option submitted by Lendlease gave Aurecon the chance to differentiate itself by creating an environment that puts its people at the heart of its design and thereby supporting the health and wellbeing of its people.

Not only is Aurecon the anchor tenant, but also was part of the creation of 25 King as the structural engineers (with Lendlease), building services and acoustic engineers and ESD consultants for the building, along with architects Bates Smart, interior architects Woods Bagot  and owners Impact Investment Group.

At 9 levels on top of a concrete podium, 25 King is currently the tallest and largest (at the time) engineered-timber office building in Australia. A co-creation between Lendlease and Aurecon, together with Bates Smart, 25 King is a world-class building of the future. 

Construction finished in October 2018 with Aurecon moving its 700 Brisbane staff in early November 2018.

View a video on the project here.

Forté Apartments is an Australian and worldwide first for being the world’s tallest timber apartments. Using Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), Forte apartments will revolutionise construction methodology globally.

Forté, located in Victoria Harbour, Docklands is a boutique apartment development with just 23 apartments. Unique with only 3 spacious apartments per floor offering residents privacy and intimacy. Forté features one bedroom, two-bedroom and penthouse apartments. Every apartment is dual aspect and has been designed to make the most of sunlight and natural ventilation

The existing building would have been able to accommodate an extension of 6 levels with the use of concrete framed construction. The design challenge was to surpass this, in order to deliver a hotel with 220 rooms. The solution was to use Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), so the existing structures were able to support an additional 10 levels, with minimum disruption to the tenants. In other words, using CLT was a key factor in making the project financially feasible.

The client Hume Property Group contracted Adina Hotels as a tenant, which appreciated the fact that CLT provided reduced carbon emissions.

Photo Credit: Peter Clarke

Aurecon is helping to bring one of the world’s largest mass-engineered timber buildings to life – The Nanyang Technological University Academic Building South in Singapore.

The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore is a leader in adopting sustainable materials and innovative construction methods for its campus development. Its latest project, Academic Building South (ABS), is no different and will be built largely from Mass Engineered Timber (MET) to be the new home for Nanyang Business School. At 40,000 square metres, it will be one of the largest wooden buildings in Asia upon completion in 2021.

To bring this tall building’s vision to life, Aurecon was engaged to deliver civil and structural engineering services, including consultancy services for the demolition of the existing Innovation Centre, conceptualisation and detailed design of all structural elements, preparation of tender documents, and construction supervision.

Image courtesy of NTU in Singapore

Located in Griffintown, Montreal, the 597,560-square-foot Arbora project aimed to offer 434 condo, townhouse, and rental units in 3 eight-story buildings all with a budget of $130 million CAD.

A truly green approach resulted in the buildings only taking up 55% of the ground surface. The remaining 40% would be occupied with green space, including an urban forest with an art station, large interior courtyard, and park.

With its three 8-story buildings, the structure is constructed entirely of mass timber. The bearing partition walls of the load resistance system are built with FSC-certified cross-laminated timber and the gravitational/vertical load resistance system is a post and beam structure of FSC certified glulam supplied by Nordic Structures.

The mass-timber panels are held together by wooden tongues or nailed metal, and self-tapping screws are used to assemble the beams and columns. Generous, open floor plans and 9-foot ceilings complement the timber’s warm aesthetic.

Prefabricated panels cut to the required dimensions were shipped to the site from a plant in Chibougamau, Québec.

Arbora is aiming for LEED platinum certification.

Watch a video on the project here.

Source and image credit: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

Currently the single most well-known and iconic tall timber building and most well-documented project this 18-storey building at the University of British Columbia was completed with support from the Canadian federal government. UBC’s Brock Commons Tallwood House is one of a growing number of mass-timber buildings around the world. Tallwood House takes advantage of new engineered wood products and construction techniques to showcase more sustainable building practices.

In 2013, a government agency, Natural Resources Canada, announced financial support to encourage the regulatory and commercial acceptance of tall wood building construction in Canada through the Tall Wood Building Demonstration Initiative (TWBDI). This program and a subsequent initiative in 2017, the Green Construction through Wood (GCWood) Tall Wood Program provided funding support for Canadian developers, building officials and industry stakeholders to resolve some of the critical design and construction issues that come with tall wood structures.

The UBC Brock Commons student residence project was selected as one of two projects to receive federal funding through the TWBDI. These funds were indispensable in bridging the innovation funding gap in the preliminary design, approval and construction phase of the project. The resulting technical knowledge will benefit future teams designing and building mass timber structures and will support the adoption and advancement of tall wood buildings in Canada.

Full case study: CWC

Project gallery and Architects website: Acton Ostry Architects

Resources Website: UBC Sustainability

Fact sheet: Skyscraper Center

Image source: Think Wood

Mjøstårnet, is a 18-storey mixed use full-timber building in Norway. Groundworks started in April 2017. Installation of timber structures started in September 2017, and the building was structurally topped out in June 2018. The building will be completed and opened in March 2019. The net area is 11,300m² comprising offices, hotel, apartments, restaurant and a roof terrace. “Mjøstårnet” is Norwegian and means “The tower of Lake Mjøsa”.

The initiative to build Mjøstårnet comes from Arthur Buchardt. His vision is that the project will be a symbol of the green shift and a proof that tall buildings can be built using local resources, local suppliers and sustainable wooden materials.

Further details can be found here.

Image Credit: Moelven

The 24-storey building, with its 84 meters, is one of the tallest wooden buildings in the world. The Hasslacher Group supplied 777 block-glued glulam columns of the highest strength class in visual quality.

Furthermore, CLT wall elements with “Excellentsurface” were produced and further refined by means of a double surface treatment. In addition to this, all CLT elements were delivered with pre-installed windows and a vapour barrier.

Image source: Siga

A boutique collection of 14 units, Carbon12 is a glass and timber showpiece located in Portland, Oregon. Its structure is assembled from prefabricated Structurlam GlulamPlus® beams and columns, and CrossLam® CLT panels, which represent the next big evolution in the construction industry in the United States, and which have enormous positive economic and environmental potential.

Lighter than concrete, faster and safer to assemble than any other structural system, and most importantly, carbon sequestering, Carbon12’s sophisticated wood structure forever locks away atmospheric CO2. Its pioneering approach to midrise construction is a paradigm shift in the industry, and will serve as a model and precedent for timber construction across the nation.

Carbon12 also incorporates several other sustainability & contextually responsive features: an underground mechanical parking system, rooftop solar panels, and state-of-the-art earthquake monitoring and alert systems. The building’s slender footprint offers maximum potential for the ground-floor retail uses to spill out onto the site, and for the project to create a true sense of place in the neighbourhood.

Photo credit: Carbon12

The Oval, which housed the speed skating events for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. It was a signature structure for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and is a precedent-setting example of advanced wood engineering and design. The design of the wood roof and its application in a building of this size and significance marks the entry of British Columbia’s wood design and fabrication industry onto the world stage.

The building now functions as a multi-use sports and community centre, features one of the largest wood roof spans in the world. The roof was fabricated with hybrid glue-laminated timber-steel arches and WoodWave panels that used wood salvaged from pine beetle-killed forests.

View the overview here.

Image source: Cannon Design

T3, is the work of one of the mass timber movement’s leading lights – Micheal Green Architecture (MGA) from Vancouver, Canada Their new LEED Gold Certified mass timber office building in Minneapolis, is a game changer for the commercial building industry and a milestone for mass timber construction in the United States.  It is the first modern timber building to be built in the United States in more than 100 years, and at the time of completion (Sept 2016) the largest in North America.

The seven-storey, 220,000 sq ft commercial building will offer a mix of retail and office space, integrating into existing transit networks and the city's historic fabric.

Uniquely, the timber structure of the building itself is a great part of the sustainability and carbon footprint story of this building. Using the Canadian Wood Council’s carbon calculator, one can study the carbon impact of different building materials and approaches from a life cycle perspective. Our data from past mid-rise timber projects has shown a significant reduction in the life cycle impact of a timber structure compared to a concrete structure.

The timber structure is less energy-intensive to extract and is renewable with minimal inputs.  It requires relatively little energy input to process raw logs into engineered wood products for building (whereas concrete and steel require significant material and energy inputs). Finally, the carbon that is absorbed by trees through the photosynthesis process is sequestered in the wood fibre throughout its lifetime in the building. The project will effectively be a carbon sink for its lifetime and for as long as the wood products can be recycled and reused.

Photo credit: Michael Green Architecture (MGA)