2022 Australian Timber Design Award Winners Seminar

Presented by Marc Bernstein, Melbourne Design Studios

Hutt 01 has been designed to showcase the way forward for Australian sustainable living. It exemplifies how a sustainable design approach and Passivhaus construction principles can result in a modern luxury lifestyle home. Passivhaus is a stringent building standard from Europe that combines airtightness, heat recovery ventilation, and high insulation values to achieve very stable internal temperatures.

Presented by Andrew Tripet, NBRS

Bay Pavilions is an Arts and Aquatic Leisure Centre on the picturesque south coast of NSW. The design allows the activities and events associated across the arts, leisure, health and recreation to coalesce, creating a vibrant community meeting place inspired by the beautiful surrounds.

Bay Pavilions makes extensive use of timber in the structural framing, façade screening and internal finishes to visually connect the different functional zones, contextualise the building, and advocate for a sustainable built environment.

The GLT timber framing showcases how timber can minimise embodied energy whilst creating iconic architectural forms. The foyer link features complex double curvature beams that are inspired by the movement and rippling of water. The aquatic pool hall adopts GLT bow string trusses to achieve the large spans whilst being particularly suitable to the harsh indoor aquatic pool environment.

Timber façade screens create a rhythm of light and shadow that changes throughout the course of the day. These screens will be allowed to grey and patina over time and reference the local forests and rafts used in oyster cultivation. Internal timber ceiling, wall and floor linings create a further continuity between internal and external spaces and bring cohesion to the overall design.

Presented by Knut Menden, Betti & Knut Architecture

While working on a Masterplan for the German International School Sydney, the client required an interim solution involving three portable classrooms. The challenge was to rethink the established Australian ‘demountable’, which features throughout most schools in Australia, with the goal to build sustainably at a cost and time frame equivalent to traditional portable classrooms and attain the International Passivehouse Standard using timber as the primary construction material.

The result of our design is s.e.ed.; a prototype for a new s-ustainable e-nvironmental ed-ucation space and the antidote to traditional demountables - hopefully a larger scale solution for the education sector. Each mass timber classroom was preassembled off site, craned into place in 5 modules and installed in less than 90 minutes per building.

Designed and constructed to the International Passivehouse Standard, the classrooms allow for filtered, clean air and thermal comfort year-round, whilst reducing heating and cooling demands by 90%. The air is supplied within the Passivehouse envelope through Heat Recovery Ventilation units which maintain a constantly comfortable room temperature between 20-25 degrees.

Presented by Chris Grinham, H&E Architects

Given its waterside position and direct openness to at-times extreme weather conditions – it would have been easy to approach this design with a material selection devoid of timbers. But such a move would also dent desired outcomes and the central premise of Waterfront Tavern – a narrative conceptualised around the appeal of timber boat houses and which also nods to historic maritime construction.

Accoya was chosen externally – innumerably trialled and stained until a correct ‘aged’ patina was discovered, thus allowing longevity and conformity given the pending natural wear. It also works across rigorous geometries – The Waterside a series of interconnected gable-roof pavilions holding unique and various shapes. Ultimately, there’s an immediate warmth such timber use brings – important given the Waterfront Tavern must also work as a community anchor to the newly formed residential development. Such warmth carries to the interior – where planning was forged on the maximisation of the views and a want to align such with a ‘natural’, albeit robust, design fit for purpose. This sees a heady and pragmatic use of timber throughout - large, elevated sections (inclusive internal trusses) running full length pine, with American white oak presented at ground level and where patrons directly interact with the material.

Presented by Veryan Curnow, JCB Architects

Point Lonsdale Surf Life Saving Club is a beloved public asset, having served the community for 70+ years.

With the existing clubhouse no longer fit-for-purpose, a new two-storey building was urgently needed. The new clubhouse aims to foster community relationships, provide a hub of year-round activity and enhance the Club’s reputation as one of the state’s most-effective surf lifesaving bodies. It also aims to provide an exemplar of coastal environmental and socially sustainable development.

A large public lawn with terraced decking provides a welcoming interface for events and training. Public spaces continue across the first level via an expansive, dynamic undercover deck with dune and bush reserve views, articulated by a rhythm of 7- metre-high glulam timber columns - the effect is a civic double-height verandah.

Timber cladding was chosen as a singular material response to embed the building within the coastal context. The cladding provides warmth and tactility, and will weather gracefully, further knitting the building into the landscape.

Sustainably sourced spotted gum and blackbutt were specified across cladding, decking, seating and window elements. Spotted gum was chosen for its durability and robust BAL resistance. The clubhouse is designed with civic generosity and a casualness that flows through both building and landscape.

Presented by Grant Steel, XLam

Iron Creek Bay Farm Stay will breathe new life into an existing farm, ready to take the next step in agricultural development.

The property's moral solid backbone allows the proposed development to expand the current agricultural offering. The result will enable the development to diversify the product offering and cater to a growing local and regional market.

Iron Creek Bay Farm Stay was created as a "Net Zero" development so that it is net zero or as close as possible would set a high sustainability standard when it opens. Using materials and energy consumption allows the owners to set a standard that can be built upon over the next 70 years.

The scenic landscape and the project's built form have been considered a single interwoven environment to create a uniquely Australian rural space. Consequently, the precinct's external colour palette and materials reflect the Australian landscape incorporating plantation-grown hardwood timbers and native plants.

Iron Creek Bay Farm Stay has endeavoured to create buildings that respond to the landscape and an experience of an agricultural farm. The underlying factors for the development ensure that the project is entirely environmentally sustainable.