FWPA’s Mid-rise Advisory Program (MAP) continues to build awareness of the untapped potential of timber in mid-rise construction, with its new ‘mid-rise master class’ series of Thursday weekly webinars.
After a month of stimulating talks, the webinars have rapidly gained recognition as a preeminent program for design and build professionals interested in working with timber.
Topics so far have included:
- a case study of ‘The Clancy’, a six-storey CLT building in Sydney;
- waterproofing and airtightness design of timber buildings;
- lightweight, mid-rise timber construction in North America; and
- timber’s role as the ultimate building material for a sustainable future.
Extending on the pre-existing and highly successful Tuesday WoodSolutions seminar series that commenced in April, the mid-rise master classes have allowed for exciting, contemporary conversations on mid-rise timber construction to continue in the face of travel restrictions and social distancing requirements occasioned by COVID-19.
Since the series commenced, attendance has steadily grown, attracting a mix of architects and designers, educators and students, engineers and builders.
Laurence Ritchie, Cost and Program Estimator at WoodSolutions, said, “As one may expect, with these new master classes we’re focussing on mid-rise topics only, with each webinar hosted in collaboration with a different MAP partner company.
“This more specialised and consistent topic focus on mid-rise buildings means these sessions are fast becoming a valuable technical resource for mid-rise designers and builders.
“With the Q&A stage at the end of every session full of highly relevant questions, the most commonly asked and insightful of these are uploaded to the MAP website for future reference,” said Ritchie.
The master class seminars will continue for at least four more weeks, and more information can be found at www.woodsolutions.com.au/event-created/month
Website redevelopment
To keep pace with interest and investment, the MAP team is transforming its informational pages on the WoodSolutions website. The goal is to provide an enhanced mid-rise specific resource that will host fact sheets and other mid-rise-specific content.
The MAP team is also preparing to launch a new expert blog on the website, with the first post – focusing on ‘the challenges and opportunities for mid-rise in a post-COVID market’ — already in the works.
And in other MAP news…
Always eager to share its experience and expertise, the MAP team will present at this week’s Australasian Structural Engineering Conference.
The team’s presence will help to build knowledge amongst the broader construction industry about the advantages of timber as a structurally viable material, with important environmental benefits over traditional alternatives.
In addition, the team is pleased to note significant mid-rise projects that have recently commenced, including Geelong Civic Precinct, University of Newcastle Honeysuckle Campus, an apartment building in Thornbury (Vic), and a five-storey vertical extension in Adelaide. Meanwhile, a five-storey office at Brisbane airport is also due to commence constriction imminently.
