CLT is made up by blueing lamellas together in alternating directions.
Hume Partners Property, the developer behind Melbourne’s tallest timber commercial tower, is also building its smallest – a single-storey childcare centre. Source: Australian Financial Review
The company backed by BRW Rich-Lister Peter Scanlon has partnered with childcare industry veteran Vin Harink to build Australia’s first childcare centre out of cross-laminated timber (CLT).
Construction of the one-storey centre in South Oakleigh, with approval for 139 children, will start as soon as a building permit allows it on the 3300 square-metre site, said Mr Harink, one of three directors of Hume Childcare Pty Ltd.
CLT, part of a growing move towards prefabrication in Australian construction, permits customised pre-cut timber panels to be assembled on-site.
Construction firm Strongbuild last week put the final panel on a 101-apartment affordable housing project it is building for developer BlueCHP.
Using CLT cut four months off the construction program compared with conventional methods – worth as much as 2% of the $28 million project, the company said.
Such savings also apply to smaller projects, such as the $6.5 million childcare centre designed by architecture firm insite, Mr Harink said.
“It was very comparable to traditional building methods,” he said. “There’s a marginal difference in terms of construction costs. But the benefit is calculated in terms of construction time-saving. We’re reducing our construction time by about one-third.”
Prefabrication is already being used in childcare centres.
Folkestone Education Trust (FET), the country’s biggest owner of childcare centres, is building its first prefab childcare facility in South Morang, north-east of Melbourne. But Mr Harink said the South Oakleigh project – with 2000 square metres of exposed timber on the interior – would give the centre, due to be in operation before the end of the year, an edge in selling its services to young families.
“One of the other major benefits is that we have a very green and energy-efficient building,” he said. “It will be an attractive marketing difference for those parents as much as anything else.”
Mr Harink, a former managing director of FET predecessor Austock Property Management and then a fund manager with listed childcare centre owner Arena REIT, set up his own investment vehicle for the childcare and early learning centre properties, Veuve Property Group, in late 2014.
While the 1066-1070 Centre Road property was a project of Hume Childcare and not Veuve, his company would also consider them, Mr Harink said.
“If this is successful, I think given the comparable cost of construction of using CLT panels there is a good opportunity to do more of these,” he said
