Lendlease has announced plans for Australia’s first commercial timber office building at groundbreaking Barangaroo, in Sydney Australia.

The seven-storey International House Sydney has been designed by Tzannes and will be constructed from cross laminated timber (CLT) and glue laminated timber, with a completion date expected in 2017. With a lower carbon footprint than other building materials, sourced from certified sustainably managed forests and producing zero waste, the use of CLT is an exciting development in urban Australian construction.

Alec Tzannes, Director of Tzannes, said, “The architecture of International House Sydney reflects a new form of beauty. Beyond shape and surface, it is ‘deep design’, renewing architecture’s role to serve the greater social purpose of lowering carbon emissions. Looking from the bridges leading to Barangaroo, through the clean glass skin, the multi-storey timber structure forms the character of the architecture, the same character that from inside creates an interior environment reminiscent of the spaces often found in Sydney’s historic timber or cast iron and brick buildings from the era when warehouse buildings were crucial to Australia’s maritime economy.”

Louise Wright writes, “CLT technology development first started in Switzerland in the 1990s. Last year Lendlease announced its plans to open a factory to manufacture pre-fabricated building components, including CLT, which is due to open in 2016. Earlier this year New Zealand-based CLT company XLam revealed it would be opening a CLT factory in the Albury, Wodonga region, due to be completed in 2017. International House Sydney will be Lendlease’s third CLT building in Australia, the others being Forte Apartments and public building Library at The Dock, designed by Clare Design (design architect) with Hayball (architect of record), in Melbourne.”

Andrew Wilson, Managing Director of Barangaroo South said, “We are well on our way to creating Australia’s first large scale carbon neutral community and we are extremely proud to be delivering this exciting building.”

To find out more about Citygreen’s involvement in the development of Barangaroo, click here.

Article Source .  https://architectureau.com/articles/australia-to-get-first-commercial-timber-office-building-at-barangaroo/