Sensational-Adelaide.com

Description: Construct an additonal 8 levels including a roof top garden on an existing 4 level carparking building and use as
residential accommodation - 62 apartments.
Property Address: 14-18 Topham Mall
ADELAIDE SA 5000
Applicant : BUCHAN LEE PROPERTY
CONSULTANTS
Owner : GAHAYA GLOBAL VENTURES P/L
Application First Lodged: 25 Jun 2012

Timber raises its building sites

Giuseppe Tauriello

September 04, 20121:00AM


TIMBER apartments will sprout out of the tops of carparks across the city if Peter Buchan has his way.

The developer wants to build the multi-level towers using an innovative building material known as cross-laminated timber (CLT).

And he says carparks offer a cost-effective platform for the lightweight, high-rise structures.

"What we're trying to do is create a product that has never been done before," he says.

"If we can build affordable, high-yield residential property built over air space, we are going to repopulate the city a lot quicker."

UniSA sustainable design professor Steffen Lehmann has been a long-time proponent of the timber construction system and says it has the potential to revolutionise construction in Australia - challenging traditional steel and concrete.

He says wood-panel buildings can be built about 30-50 per cent quicker than traditional buildings, offer improved acoustic, thermal and fire performance, and are 50 per cent lighter than concrete buildings.

"CLT panels can best be described as jumbo plywood layers of timber glued together with the grain alternating at 90-degree angles," he says.

"Cross-laminating layers of wood veneer improves the structural properties by distributing the along-the-grain strength of wood in both directions, so solid wood panels can be used to form complete floors, walls and roofs."

Mr Buchan's first target is the thoroughfare of Topham Mall, which he wants to see accommodate up to 250 apartments in four separate timber structures.

His property group Buchan Lee and its three joint venture partners - architecture firm JPE Design, Scott Salisbury Homes and prefabricated timber provider Le Messurier - are in early negotiations with the City Council to secure the air space above the Topham Mall carpark to develop the $100 million project. Mr Buchan, who developed the Martin Towers apartments atop the John Martin's carpark on North Tce, says as well as the ability to build higher and quicker, there are other benefits from using CLT.

"Where you save the money is the speed in which these things go up. In Melbourne, they're putting up a floor a week," he says.

Mr Buchan refers to the world's tallest CLT apartment building, which is now under construction at Docklands in Melbourne.

Lend Lease's Forte project will stand 32m across 10 levels, and will have taken just eight months to build when it is completed next month. The $11 million project will reduce carbon emissions by more than 1400 tonnes compared to concrete and steel.

Lend Lease anticipates that 30-50 per cent of its future residential projects could be executed in CLT.

Prof Lehmann says the environmental benefits of CLT are significant, with one cubic metre of wood able to store one tonne of carbon.

He is planning a prototype CLT demonstration project at West Beach early next year, and says an eight-storey apartment building is also being considered for the $1 billion Bowden development

He says wood-panel buildings can be built about 30-50 per cent quicker than traditional buildings, offer improved acoustic, thermal and fire performance, and are 50 per cent lighter than concrete buildings.

SouthAussie94 wrote:

He says wood-panel buildings can be built about 30-50 per cent quicker than traditional buildings, offer improved acoustic, thermal and fire performance, and are 50 per cent lighter than concrete buildings.

Wait, what?

Wood building, improved fire performance?? Surely not...

Type: Development Application Received
Application Number: DA/763/2012
Lodgement Date: 5/11/2012
Location: 41-47 Currie Street, ADELAIDE SA 5000
Description: Facade upgrade and new plant room screen at roof level