4 INDUSTRY NEWS
HOUSEBUILDER & DEVELOPER
Joint Publisher Anthony Parker
James Parker
FROM THE EDITOR
The recently growing movement to build tall residential buildings using timber has taken a severe knock following the Government’s response to Grenfell (and perhaps has not been helped by the sad loss of Notre Dame’s timber roof and spire). The Ministry of Housing reacted in a undoubtedly blunt fashion following the Hackitt report, banning all ‘combustible’ materials in the external walls of new towers over 18 metres.
Whether or not simply banning materials which can burn – rather than immediately putting the focus on issues around Building Regulations – is the best way forward, is up for debate. The Hackitt report is proposing a new regulatory framework, and the Government’s due to respond later in the year, but has the ban already sounded the death knell for timber?
As many timber aficionados will tell you, it’s eminently possible to construct multi-storey buildings entirely from timber, as evidenced in several recent projects. Mjøstårnet is an 85.4 metre, 18-storey mixed use building just completed in Brumunddal, Norway, as the world’s tallest timber building. The part-resi scheme shows what can be done, albeit in a country full of forests and already well used to large-scale timber building. It’s constructed of big glulam trusses, with a CLT (cross- laminated timber) core, including lifts and stairs.
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The project took the title from a student accommodation building in Vancouver – Brock Commons Tallwood House; which featured a ground- breaking timber 53 metre structure, albeit with a concrete core. The UK has also been pushing the envelope in residential timber multi-storey buildings, with Waugh Thistleton architects’ Dalston Works in London claiming the ‘world’s largest CLT building’ title in 2017. Long before that, Stadhaus in Hackney – a hotbed of CLT adoption – was the first tall all-CLT apartment block, completed in 2009.
Despite all this innovation, the Government’s actions are being interpreted as a major obstacle for building with timber in tall UK buildings. The ban permits only materials with a Class A1 or A2 rating in the external wall – and the failure to exclude CLT has been perceived as a de facto ban on its use in external walls above 18 metres.
PRIDE & JOY
The McAvoy Group explores its 40-home Joymount development in Northern Ireland, explaining how the offsite methods used have helped to reduce the build programme
The McAvoy Group factory Joymount, Northern Ireland go to page 22
WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
CLT is great for modular housing application, which is why its been eagerly taken up by organisations like Legal and General and Swan Housing Group, who have invested in modular housebuilding factories. There is controversy around the sensitive issue of fire performance, obviously thrown into stark focus post-Grenfell, although timber wasn’t a factor. Many, including of course the timber lobby, believe the material’s charring properties can even make it safer than steel in certain cases. Others believe that research proves CLT is not the panacea, even if only used on internal walls and floors. Surely a national testing programme is needed to clear this up once and for all?
James Parker
Managing Editor James Parker
Assistant Editor Jack Wooler
Editorial Assistant Roseanne Field
Senior Sales Executives Sheehan Edmonds Nathan Hunt
Sales Executives Suzanne Easter Kim Friend
Studio Manager Mikey Pooley
Production Assistants Georgia Musson Kimberley Musson
Audience Development Manager Jane Spice
Managing Director Simon Reed
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