Australia’s most iconic building wins big at the Australian Timber Design Awards!
The recent 24th annual Australian Timber Design Awards saw a bone fide Australian icon win big.
The Sydney Opera House Concert Hall renewal project was recognised as the best Interior Fit Out – Commercial, overseen by ARM Architecture, as well as bagging the night’s major award – The Australian Timber Design Award – during the recent ceremony, held in Melbourne.
As part of the visually stunning fit out, ARM employed symbolic interpretations of theatrical characteristics, drawing inspiration from shapes and patterns reminiscent of musical instruments, rhythms, and dance. These artistic elements served as a guiding influence for the new interior design, with sweeping ribbon staircases, and rhythmic timber cladding in the auditorium, as well as the design of the auditorium walls and balcony fronts.
The ceremony for these prestigious awards was MC’d by Australian comedian and architecture enthusiast, Tim Ross, who was a hit with attendees thanks to his clever wit, as well as his impressive knowledge of the design and build industry.
The Australian Timber Design Awards are renowned amongst the design community across Australia for their recognition of outstanding projects and the teams behind the ever-growing use of timber in the built environment.
The 2023 Australian Timber Design Award for the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall was presented by FWPA’s Head of Built Environment Programs Kevin Peachey, representing WoodSolutions, the Award’s major sponsor. For more information on the awards, click here.
WoodSolutions Special Event | The path to health & sustainability with mass timber
WoodSolutions recently hosted a special seminar featuring world-renowned architect Tye Farrow, who shared details with attendees of his new book Constructing Health in Australia.
During his presentation, Tye offered insights into an engaging and accessible way forward in how to ‘construct health’ by employing specific, measurable design qualities and characteristics known to enhance human performance in the cities and homes we live in, the places we learn, and the spaces in which we heal.
Tye was joined by the team behind Collingwood’s T3 project which is Melbourne’s largest mass timber office building.
Attendees enjoyed this valuable and unique opportunity to take a peek inside the building, while gaining insights on Mass Timber Construction from the people behind its creation.
ForestTech Conference (Melbourne)
The ForestTech Conference in Melbourne provided a great opportunity to learn more about the latest tech advancements in forestry, including remote sensing, data capture, in-forest UAV applications, forest inventory, precision planting, fertilisation and spraying, mechanised silviculture and mechanised tree planting.
The event is run annually for forest resource managers, remote sensing specialists, inventory foresters, forest establishment and tree crop managers.
As event partners, FWPA were also able to showcase the educational tech tools we provide through our ForestLearning and ForestVR program to encourage students and teachers to access and immerse themselves in our Australian forests from any location.
WoodSolutions Education program | Industry-University Educator Workshop
The FWPA WoodSolutions Education Program delivered its third Industry-University Educator Workshop in Sydney between 9 and 10 November. The event was supported by the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design & Planning, and School of Civil Engineering.
Bringing together 34 participants from industry, and 30 university lecturers from all over the country, the aim was to discuss how to get more timber content taught as part of Australian university engineering, architecture and building courses.
Sessions included updates on a new WoodSolutions micro-certification program, Timber Design for Residential Construction, which is currently in development with the University of Tasmania (UTAS).
In addition, attendees heard from experts in various fields including architecture, engineering and prefabricated manufacture, prefabricated building, software, and emerging innovative wood opportunities.
Future collaborative research opportunities between industry and universities were also discussed, as well as how to build technical timber research capacity within institutes at the academic, postgraduate and undergraduate levels.
The advice and feedback provided by workshop attendees will be used to develop an ongoing WoodSolutions education strategy. Read the full story here on the WoodSolutions website.
