With 32.5% less embodied carbon, a “first of its kind” heated blue gum floor and extensive use of Tasmanian oak, the state’s local timber industry is holding up the University of Tasmana’s newest building as an exemplar for the future. Source: Hobart Mercury
Industry heads were taken on a tour of the newly completed $45.5m River’s Edge building at the university’s Inveresk campus, home to Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, Education and Business, on Friday.
The building incorporates an extensive range of Tasmanian timber products including veneer panels, timber battens, solid flooring, wall and ceiling linings, furniture, kitchen joinery, acoustic panels, and a cross-laminated timber staircase, all manufactured locally from native and plantation timbers, particularly Tasmanian oak.
The extensive use of wood plus other green innovations, including recycled concrete and pilings made from repurposed steel gas pipelines (also used in the university’s other new builds, the Library and the Shed at Willis St), has resulted in 32.5% less embodied carbon – carbon emitted during a building’s construction.
Significantly, the design and construction of the building revealed a groundbreaking development in the use of native timber: that Tasmanian blue gum was suitable for the use in heated floors.
“We know timber is not the biggest fan of being heated and changed with moisture,” said Dr Louise Wallis of The Centre for Sustainable Architecture with Wood.
However, a test slab constructed beside the building to test a “whole heap of different species with the heating cranked up for some time,” revealed blue gum was suitable for this type of application, once glued to a thin plywood board to ensure its stability.
“This was the first time [blue gum] has been put in a commercial environment where it’s on an underfloor heated slab,” Dr Wallis said.
“It’s quite likely this product will be able to be used across the rest of Australia.
“This building is now the experiment giving other people the confidence to do this.”
Only one other Australian supplier is producing timber for heated floors, a laminated plywood made by New South Wales’ Big Rivers, with the others all manufactured in China.
Tasmanian Timber chairman Shawn Britton, the managing director of Britton Timbers, which supplied the oak for River’s Edge, said that large-scale timber projects are growing in popularity.
“More architects and designers are looking for solutions that have carbon benefits. Timber is the obvious choice not only for carbon storage, but also for the raw beauty and functionality,” he said.
The 2015 redevelopment of MyState Bank Arena and Hotel Verge Launceston, opened in 2020, were two large builds using a high quantum of local timber, Mr Britton said.
Mr Britton nominated two main “threats” to Tasmania’s timber industry: outbidding by mainland producers, particularly in Victoria, and undercutting by cheap imports.
“Most people in Tasmania’s industry want to see processing of our products into value-added products on the island,” he said.
Mr Britton said that demand was “strong” and it was up to producers and regulators to ensure consistency of supply.
Moving forward, he said he expected “plantation timber” such as the eucalyptus used for River’s Edge’s cross-laminated timber staircase to play an increasingly important role.
