5 King St in Brisbane, is the world’s tallest timber office building we now yet.
The project is the latest of using solutions called cross-laminated timber (CLT) as a load-bearing material.
According to Chris Ammundsen, the Aurecon lead structural engineer behind 5 King Street, the CLT process involves glueing thick layers of wood together with the grain alternating at 90 degree angles.
They are assembled like supersized flatpack furniture, says Nick Hewson, a technical manager with engineered wood suppliers XLam.
“There’s a speed and simplicity in construction,” he says. “Think of assembling a big piece of furniture – there are even oversized screws and slats.”
Different building style is one of the main barriers to the growth of CLT , where a construction industry used to grappling with each project requirement as it arises instead needs to revamp workflows to ensure everything is on-site ready to go from day one.
Anyone who has assembled an Ikea bookshelf can attest that a single piece missing from a flatpack can result in construction delays, structural deficiencies, and even desperate attempts to decipher oblique Swedish instruction manuals.
The project is the latest of using solutions called cross-laminated timber (CLT) as a load-bearing material.
According to Chris Ammundsen, the Aurecon lead structural engineer behind 5 King Street, the CLT process involves glueing thick layers of wood together with the grain alternating at 90 degree angles.
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| 5 King St in Brisbane, timber office building. |
They are assembled like supersized flatpack furniture, says Nick Hewson, a technical manager with engineered wood suppliers XLam.
“There’s a speed and simplicity in construction,” he says. “Think of assembling a big piece of furniture – there are even oversized screws and slats.”
Different building style is one of the main barriers to the growth of CLT , where a construction industry used to grappling with each project requirement as it arises instead needs to revamp workflows to ensure everything is on-site ready to go from day one.
Anyone who has assembled an Ikea bookshelf can attest that a single piece missing from a flatpack can result in construction delays, structural deficiencies, and even desperate attempts to decipher oblique Swedish instruction manuals.
A UN annual review in 2015-16 found that production of CLT is expanding globally from 650,000 to 700,000 cubic metres in 2015 to a projected 1 million cubic metres last year, but concrete remains well ahead.
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