BNZ Conference

Date: Wednesday 7 September 2011

Time: 10am – 5pm

Place: Energy Events Centre

Online website bookings for the conference will close off at 3pm on Thursday 1 September.

Registrations for the conference can still be made at the entrance marquee or at the info/registrations desk in the Grand Hall at the Energy Events Centre during the Expo.

 Alternatively please phone Sandra Kai Fong FI2011 Project Manager 027 283 6080 to confirm a conference registration.

This one-day industry conference will be looking at Innovative Products, Designs and New Developments for Timber Building.

On the back of the devastating earthquake in Christchurch, the timber industry will be hosting a one day forum in conjunction with the PF Olsen Forest Industries Expo 2011 and the BNZ Forest Industries Tech Clinics 2011. Political, local Government and building experts have been advocating wood take on a much prominent role in rebuilding the city. This renewed interest in wood in construction comes on the back of exciting news of a new 10 storey timber building that has been announced for Melbourne, the possibility of the world’s first ‘timber skyscraper’, a 30-storey wooden high-rise building in British Columbia and news of the first cross laminated timber manufacturing facility in the Southern Hemisphere planned for New Zealand.

Italian engineer Paolo Lavisci, involved in the reconstruction of the town of L’Aquila after a 2009 earthquake, will outline what the rebuilding and other initiatives have meant for wider acceptance of timber buildings in Italy, and the research and advances under way in Europe. Canadian architect Michael Green will look at the future of multi-storey timber building and lessons for New Zealand.

From a New Zealand point of view, Robert Finch, Chief Executive of the Structural Innovation Company (STIC) will use STIC’s extensive research as a base to discuss the argument for timber buildings, while NZ Trade and Enterprise and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will examine how New Zealand can best capitalise on opportunities for using more wood in construction.

Linking and extending these two themes will be a presentation by consultant Johann Betz on prefabrication and another by Chris Edmonds, CEO of XLam, which will be the first manufacturer of cross laminated timber panels (CLT) when production begins late in 2011 or early 2012.

Prefabrication, using engineered wood products such as CLT and other materials, is seen as the way to improve quality, reduce construction times and, in some cases, cut cost.

Bryce Heard, Chief Executive of Lockwood, will discuss prefabrication

The conference will also hear two case studies.

A 16-storey twin tower block being built by Hawkins Construction for The University of Auckland to provide accommodation for students could set a trend for structures utilising timber, concrete and steel, both in New Zealand and overseas.

It will be the largest “hybrid” building in New Zealand, using wood-framed modules that sit within a steel and concrete framework. When completed it will offer 442 beds for students attending the university.

It uses more wood than any tower block of this size and its modular construction has reduced the on-site build time considerably.

The Auckland University building is a showpiece for a nationwide push towards more prefabricated buildings in the commercial and housing sector that will see a greater use of timber in the future.

Each one-bedroom unit in the Warren & Mahoney-designed building is made by Stanley Modular in its Morrinsville factory and arrives on site completely fitted out, including carpets and furniture, ready to be stacked by crane into the concrete structure and connected up.

Both The Auckland University Building and a new multi-storey, timber-framed Wellington College of Creative Arts building under construction in Wellington make extensive use of prefabrication.

The college building, to be used as a design studio and teaching space, uses laminated veneer lumber (LVL) columns and beams, with post-tensioned LVL frames – the first time both have been used together in the world, according to Katherine Dean of Athfield Architects.

The floors are modular concrete slabs, precast off-site with LVL floor joists cast into the slabs.

This one-day industry conference will be looking at “Innovative Products, Designs and New Developments for Timber Building”.

This one day event is designed to attract architects, designers, engineers and specifiers tot he largest ever planned forestry event in Rotorua.

Topics Covered

• Christchurch: The argument for timber structures and what this means to the timber industry
• Lessons from the 2009 ‘L’Aquila earthquake What timber reconstruction meant to the wider use of wood in Italy.
• Large scale production of residential timber houses
• The future of multi-storey timber buildings – an international perspective
• How to prefabricate the timber structures of tomorrow
• Cross laminated timber and opportunities for NZ
• Innovative case studies of ground-breaking NZ buildings

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