Timber Design Awards 2012
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Category: 8. Canterbury Rebuild Innovation
Most effective use of timber in architectural and engineering terms, as a response to the Canterbury rebuild – this award is open to both built and unbuilt.
- Merritt Office Building, Victoria Street
Sheppard & Rout Architects Ltd/Kirk Roberts Consulting Engineers - www.sheprout.com
The structure of the new office building proposed for 134 Victoria Street and designed by Kirk Roberts Consulting Engineers Ltd. will be constructed of a highly resilient three level Expan LVL timber frame – the first commercial Expan office building to be constructed in central Christchurch. It is a post tensioned timber frame relying on cables within the beams and steel energy dissipator clamps at the
junctions to seismically strengthen and brace the building. It is clad in glass on two sides to display on the outside the warmth of the timber interior along with the quake resistant dissipators and post tensioned cable ends. External sunscreens as well as soft coat low E glass will screen the interior from the sun. Horizontal louvers on the north and closely spaced vertical louvers on the west respond to the building orientation and street presence.
The use of a LVL multi-level timber frame structure post tensioned horizontally will be a world first example of this particular version of the Expan technology – a technology that was developed at Canterbury University. It is a damage avoidance system which can resist large earthquakes successfully without incurring significant and costly damage, whilst keeping its inhabitants safe.
Using locally grown Radiata Pine for the structure also creates a highly sustainable building and an attractive, warm, pleasant interior. This use of timber for multi-storey commercial buildings makes Expan an ideal technology for the future rebuild of Christchurch.
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