ENGINEERING DESIGN IN WOOD BUILDINGS
The nation’s leading experts in timber and engineered wood construction will discuss the rapidly evolving trend to ‘Building with engineered wood construction systems’ at the Frame Australia 2015 conference and exhibition on Monday 1 June at Park Hyatt Melbourne.
Conference topic sessions include ‘Building codes and engineering design’ with a number of prominent engineers presenting, including Boris Iskra of FWPA who said “Over the last decade, advances in timber building products and systems have seen an explosion in the use of timber in residential apartment buildings around the world”.
“Other countries permit timber apartment buildings as deemed-to-satisfy solutions up to 10 storeys, well beyond the current 3 storeys in Australia, and a recent submission to amend the Building Code of Australia aims to permit timber construction in apartment buildings up to 8 storeys”.
Robert Gerard of ARUP Sydney added “One of the primary inhibitors is that timber buildings tend to be perceived as “more dangerous” than other building types due to the combustible nature of wood”
“With the development of new timber technologies, research and testing has improved our understanding of timber fire performance. This greater understanding of fire safety in timber buildings allows designs to meet, and even exceed, performance requirements in modern building codes”.
In the last few years, major developers and builders in Australia have emerged as potential world leaders in utilising timber and engineered wood in construction of multi-residential and commercial buildings.
Andrew Dunn of the Timber Development Association said “the Australian construction industry is actually outpacing other countries in the growth of timber buildings, with some 30 major developments nationally being either planned, or have commenced construction”.
For more information on the Frame Australia 2015 conference and exhibition visit the website www.frameaustralia.com