A showcase building that breaks new ground in the use of wood as a structural building material in multi-storey construction is already attracting international interest.
The Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology’s (NMIT) Arts and Media Building is being constructed in a pinus radiata laminated veneer lumber (LVL) frame structure using new engineering technology developed by the Structural Timber Innovation Company (STIC).
When completed next year, the building will become the world’s first multi-storey wooden building to use pre-stressed timber as a structural building material.
The building was designed by Nelson-based team of Irving Smith Jack Architects and multi-disciplinary engineers, Aurecon. Their highly original concept for the three-storey building won a national competition for the building’s design run by NMIT and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in 2008.
The design brief was that the building had to be sustainable and substantially made of wood. Timber is sustainable, renewable, locally available and requires less energy to manufacture than other building materials such as concrete and steel.
Project Director Andrew Irving says in resolving the conceptual design a degree of structural innovation was essential from the outset, requiring close collaboration between architect and engineer.
“We identified three or four options for the design then settled on the combination of simple gravity frames with a more complex shear wall seismic system.” This option was chosen because the sophistication of shear walls “allowed us to use an elegant timber frame with straightforward connections that could readily be adapted for use in a variety of building typologies”.
He says there has been strong interest in the project, both in New Zealand and from as far afield as Chile and India. In August 22-26 this year leading timber engineers from all over the world will descend on Nelson to check out the building’s many innovations.
The tour is part of the programme for the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction forum hosted by Canterbury University. Originally due to be held in Christchurch, the forum’s venue was changed to Nelson to incorporate the visit.
“As architects, we see this as the first in a new generation of creative, sustainable, wooden structured multi-storied buildings,” Irving says.
