Skilfully specifying timber products has long been one of the great arts of building. And in Australia timber is consistently being applied to ever greater effect, as new technologies and innovative approaches evolve alongside building standards and sustainability requirements.
Each year the Australian Timber Design Awards showcases projects which best display these properties, with emphasis placed on context-suitable use of timber. The applications featured below were singled out as the best uses of specific products.
Photography: Richard Glover
Timber joinery and wood veneers
Timber Staircase by Mark Pearse Architect
Clever design allows this stair to read as one continuous form.
This interior renovation is largely defined by its section, with the four floors connected by the main stairs. The shape of the stair changes continually, but in one continuous curve. Its shape is derived partly from the inflexible location of access points, and efforts to maximise the sculptural result of the shapes.
Wood veneers were laid without visible joints over a horizontal dimension of 14.5m and 6.5m high with a rotation of over 630 degrees.
In terms of materials, the facing on main stairs is made with Japanese sen veneer, while American white oak was used for the handrails. European oak was another major timber, as smoked veneer on engineered boards and solid strips; on stair treads and risers; and solid strip for stair nosing.
Timber as a Structural Element and Recycled Timber
Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat Spa Sanctuary by Pouné Design
Photography: Brett Broadman and Paul Broben
Recycled timber features prominently, with ironbark and spotted gum mix used as structural timber trusses, floor boards, handrailling and stair treads. Recycled ironbark was used in the external cladding detail, with telegraph poles used as the subfloor structure for wing buildings. Recycled karri was used for the doors and windows.
Much of the structure is made up of Australian reclaimed hardwood timbers that originated from local wharfs, bridges and old buildings.
Ironbark that was salvaged and re-milled from bridge girders in Western Queensland was used to construct a series of exposed trusses that fan and protrude through the building facade.
Spotted gum decking timber steps laid over water lead through to the main building, where timber transitions from the floor to the walls and then to the ceilings.
The timber floor transitions to the timber deck and bridge structure which leads the user to the two mirror reversed wing buildings that comprise of the treatment rooms.
Treated pine is used as a curved skeletal system clad with a skin of spotted gum boards slotted into recycled vertical rebated posts. The subfloor structure of these buildings employs reused telegraph poles.
Recycled timber is used for the structural framing of the main building of the spa sanctuary. Large size Ironbark and spotted gum members salvaged from 450mm diam. Bridge girders with grading greater than F34 were procured from Western Queensland for the project.
Western Red Cedar
Henley Street by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects
Photography: John Gollings Photography
Western red cedar was used for the external and internal cladding and battened soffits
The western red cedar wrapped house appears to emerge from the front fence, intentionally confusing the relationship between built form and landscape.
The timber was used for its aesthetic relationship with the surrounding landscape and its durability in a harsh coastal environment.
The sculptural form was achieved by developing an external cladding detail which combined western red cedar horizontal shiplap tongue and groove cladding with an overlay of vertical battens. Functionality came via the privacy screening, solar screening and balustrade detailing in the integrated concept.
The circular form was achieved by securing horizontal softwood cedar ship-lap cladding to the primary timber structural frame by opposing vertical cedar battens.
Australian Certified Timber
Glasshouse: Arts, Conference and Entertainment Centre by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer
Photography: Brett Boardman and Rob Connell
The project used golden oak in a blend of Australian hardwoods from within northern NSW highland region for the mezzanine and gallery floors, comprising brownbarrel, messmate, new england blackbutt, stringybarks and manna gum.
Another locally sourced timber, spotted gum, was used for on the exterior of the theatre, in the form of crafted veneered plywood panels with expressed edge strips.
The gallery exterior is clad in matching timber panels but laid flat and visible from the rear in a number of places. Circles are cut out of the panels to offer views through, rendering the wall as a per meable timber screen.
In the 600-seat auditorium spotted gum veneered timber panels have been acoustically designed with varying timber substrates, to provide a range for the reflection, dispersion and absorption of sound. Known as “the twisters”, the rear panels reflect sound in a scatter pattern.
Engineered Timber Products
Office Development - Surrey Hills by Tim Gibney and Associates
Radiata pine and maritime pine was used on laminated veneer lumber (LVL) floor framing.
The brief required a polished concrete floor on the office’s first level, but the capacity of the existing footing precluded a conventional concrete slab. To overcome the challenge, a light weight structure was achieved utilising a 60mm concrete screed in composite action with a timber floor system, E13 LVL joists and F11 plywood deck.
Due to the high loads, a high strength and low variability timber product was needed for the tension member. LVL joists and plywood deck were the ideal products.
To minimise the heavy steel framing required to span large window openings, which would also require a timber parapet. A C- beam fabricated in-situ from F11 radiata ply wood and E13 LVL chords achieved both requirements in one element.
The designers say timber-concrete compos ite floors are a good alternative to traditional concrete systems where a light weight struc ture is to be adopted.
They also prove an economical way to achieve the performance a conventional slab - the finished polished concrete floor was $40 sqm cheaper than the equivalent concrete slab.
Timber Panels
Sydney Water by Bates Smart
Photography: Tyrone Branigan
Blackbutt made up the core wall cladding throughout
Solid hoop pine and plywood was used for the atrium balustrades and joinery
Once built, this became the largest project of its kind using timber selected from certified renewable forestry sources in Australia. A standout feature was the timber selected as cladding for the external facades and decking material of the office building: A blend of Australian white mahogany (FSC Pure) and sugar gum (mixed credit) with a natural lano lin coating.
Plywood is used extensively throughout the building. The perforations, routed grooves and exposed polished edges utilise the thickness and structure of the material.
The atrium balustrade features a custom perforation, which repeats across standard sheet sizes to form a continuous pattern along the whole length of the atrium, for both acoustic and decorative effect. This pattern continues across pin-fixed breakout screens and privacy screens throughout the building to unify the spaces.
Routed grooves feature on the circular reception desk, atrium planter boxes, and meeting room wall panelling.
The exposed ply edges of the ceiling blades and screens are repeated in custom furniture, with breakout benches and layout tables hav ing a laminate top and polished 75mm thick ply edges.
Timber Flooring
Albert Road Apartment by Jolson Interiors and Architecture
Photography: Jason Busch
Hand scraped limed American oak engineered floor was selected for this fitout, within what was originally a Melbourne office tower.
The floor was selected for its subtle charac teristic colour and matt sheen that absorbs harsh light and reflects a soft light throughout the apartment. Following the radial structural gird of the base building, the floor boards are rotated in sections to match.
The same American oak floor board is also used to construct the dining table, its panels aligning with the floor, including both vertical and horizontal joints. The master bed, bed- head wall and bathroom joinery are also cus tom made with the same material.
Solid Timber Cladding
13th House by Seeley Architects P/L
Photography: David Seeley
Certified silvertop ash was used for the cladding and exterior timber screens thanks to its credentials as a local timber, resilient, fire resistant and moderate in cost. It can also be reused as the fixings are silicone bronze and can easily be removed at the end of the life of the building.
Timber is used throughout the house, from the major structural components to the cladding, exterior screens, interior linings and flooring.
Because of the close proximity to the ocean, the exterior cladding demanded a resilient and low maintenance solution.
Silvertop ash was chosen because it will weather slowly to silvery driftwood grey, as well as providing subtle textural variations. The same timber cladding meanders inside to clad a wall concealing doors serving the lower level bedrooms and bathroom, allowing the inside of the home to masquerade as part of the out side.
