ATDA Magazine - get one now while you can! 21-Dec-2009 To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Australian Timber Design Awards, the organising committee have produced a one-off Commemorative Year Book. The book provides a record of all the entries and winners and helps to commemorate this milestone in the development of the program. The magazine is a 64 page full colour, A4 landscape formatted, coffee table type book. It presents the national winners as well as the regional winners - plus thumbnail images of all entries. The book details entries across all four regions and at the national level. It serves as a quick reference for those who attended a presentation in their own area and are keen to see the competition from around Australia. Copies have already been made available to the entrants and sponsors of this year's competition but we are happy to distribute them freely to friends of the timber industry particularly those architects, designers, engineers and builders who have competed in the past. To obtain a copy please contact Nicollette at TDA on 02 8424 3700 or by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . And be sure to try out the online version of the book.
Structures from Plantation Hardwood Rounds 14-Nov-2009 An extensive new timber resource from very economical, small diameter plantation hardwood rounds will be available for commercial use in the near future. Opportunities to utilise this resource in a number of value added applications including small and medium scale structures such as park shelters, shade structures, noise barriers and light industrial buildings are being investigated including applications using steam bending technology. A preliminary investigation by the University of Queensland, School of Architecture and Queensland Primary Industries & Fisheries has developed design concepts for a range of these applications. You can review these concepts here. As potential designers, specifiers or purchasers of these and similar structures, we seek and value your preliminary assessment of the potential to take these opportunities further towards reality via more detailed R&D and commercial development. More...
Timber is tops for environmentally friendly commercial buildings 29-Jul-2009 Increasing the amount of timber used in large-scale commercial buildings can decrease some environmental impacts of the building, according to a New Zealand Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry (MAF) study. The research project, Environmental Impacts of Multi-Story Buildings Using Different Construction Materials, modelled the life cycle energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emissions of four similar office building designs that used different materials as their main structural element: concrete, steel, timber and 'timber-plus'. The latter also used wood-based non-structural elements. Results indicated that of the four, the 'timber-plus' building had the lowest net environmental impact, producing 4571 tonnes CO2 equivalent while the steel building had the highest net impact producing 6,789 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Timber was second lowest (5,454 tonnes), followed by concrete (6,627). More...
World's Largest Shake Table Test 16-Jul-2009 In Miki City, Japan, Simpson Strong-Tie made history today. Along with Colorado State University and researchers in Japan, Simpson Strong-Tie participated in the world's largest earthquake shake table test. The July 14th test was the strongest of three tests performed on a seven-story, full-scale condominium tower -- simulating a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. Initial test results indicate the building sustained only minimal damage (mainly cosmetic), showing that wood-frame buildings of this size can withstand major earthquakes. The seven-story tower was outfitted with Simpson Strong-Tie products, including steel special moment frames on the first floor with Anchor Tiedown Systems (ATS) and metal connectors to restrain the six stories of wood above. To view photos and video clips of the NEESWood Capstone tests, visit www.strongtie.com/about/research/capstone.html
