This article has been updated to include new images provided by Tzannes. Original article is below.

Lendlease will claim another first in Australian construction next year when it completes Australia’s first cross-laminated timber (CLT) commercial office building in Sydney.

To be called International House Sydney (IHS), the six-storey CLT and Glulam building will be located at the gateway to Lendlease’s multi-billion dollar Barangaroo development and will be the construction heavy weight’s third project in Australia that utilises the sustainable building material.

It’s been designed by Sydney architect Alec Tzannes, of Tzannes Associates and will feature a clear-glass skin, leaving the engineered timber, including 2000 m³ of CLT, in full exposure as floor frames, beams and columns.

The 7910sqm office will sit behind the three ‘International Towers’ designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour at Barangaroo South, which was recently awarded a 6 Star Green Star - Communities rating by the Green Building Council Australia.

IHS will be targeting a 6-Star Green Star Office Design and As Built (v3) rating of its own and its heavy dosage (not literally) of CLT will be a key factor in it achieving that. According to Lendlease's Barangaroo South managing director Andrew Wilson, all engineered timbers will sourced from sustainably managed forests in Austria and the CLT will have a PEFC chain of custody certification.

This will go a long way to lowering the building’s carbon footprint, which according to Alec Tzannes, is the driving force behind the project.

"The architecture of International House Sydney reflects a new form of beauty,” he says.

“Beyond shape and surface, it is 'deep design' renewing architecture's role to serve the greater social purpose of lowering carbon emissions.”

The building will be built on a concrete slab and share a basement with the International Towers behind.

LENDLEASE HOLDS MOST BUT NOT ALL THE GOLD

This will be Lendlease’s third CLT project after the 10-storey Forte apartments, Australia’s first CLT building, and the public Library at the Dock, in Melbourne's Docklands, which is Australia’s first public CLT building.

The first residential project using CLT was completed by Ardea Oosthuizen of Ecobuild Design at Maianbar, NSW

It’s been reported that Australia’s first cross-laminated timber (CLT) manufacturing plant will be built in the Albury Wodonga region by mid-2017, however new information came to Architecture & Design recently that there is a company in Perth, WA already producing CLT and readying to go to market imminently.

MAKING USE OF CLT FACTORY?

Lendlease will not be utilising its new $1 billion prefab manufacturing hub for the IHS project, instead the 2000 m³ of CLT will be produced at Stora Enso’s Ybbs unit in Austria.

Nathan Johnson

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