It’s good enough that six of the eight finalists for the World Architecture Festival (WAF) "Best Use of Certified Timber Prize" – awarded by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) - are for projects in the Asia Pacific, but there’s also been a big boost for Mass Engineered Timber (MET) by architects and builders in the region, most notably in Japan, Australia and Singapore.
Modular building company Fabprefab has decked out its New South Wales central coast warehouse with locally grown and manufactured timber from XLam, meeting the Australian standard for Sustainable Forest Management, a prerequisite for Responsible Wood, which issues PEFC certifications in Australia and New Zealand.
Fabprefab’s choice of XLam CLT points to the increased demand for the use of sustainably-sourced timber solutions.
XLam technical sales engineer for New South Wales, Sean Bull explains: "This includes ensuring that all XLam Australia manufacturing sites are PEFC chain of custody certified, so all products from these sites can be traced from renewable pine plantation through to distribution.”
The two Australian finalists for the 2021 WAF-PEFC prize are: Daramu House by architects Tzannes in the office category, and Mon Repos Turtle Centre by Kirk Studio in the Display category.
Japan also featured as one of the WAF-PEFC finalists for the Best Use of Certified Timber prize, with its Ariake Gymnastics Centre, entered by architects Nikken Sekkei in the Sports category.
PEFC and its national governing body in Japan, SGEC, has also drawn attention to another significant timber sporting stadium, which was completed in time for the Tokyo Olympics.
This is an arena with approximately 15,000 seats and is located in the Ariake North district. During the Paralympic competitions, it was also used for volleyball and wheelchair basketball tournaments. In the future it will be used for all kinds of sports and live events, taking advantage of its large capacity.
It is close to the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. Both buildings demonstrate the design concept of “wooden vessels,” created to allow the visitors to enjoy the warmth of the wooden building both inside and outside.
Besides the two projects from Australia and one from Japan, Asia Pacific was also represented by one finalist each from Indonesia, New Zealand and Hong Kong/China.
WAF-PEFC 2021 Prize Finalists
While all these buildings have their use of certified timber in common, their style and purpose vary widely: from higher education and research to community spaces and sports facilities, to name only a few.
PEFC has also reported in recent months on the rapid rise of MET projects in Singapore. These have included two major projects by Venturer Timberworks, one for National Parks at Jurong Lake Gardens and one for the People’s Association at Bedok Reservoir.
There was also the new timber roof at the Changi Chapel and Museum for the National Heritage Board, which was PEFC’s first chain of custody project certification in Singapore, carried out by Double Helix Tracking Technologies.
PEFC-certified timber is also being used in two large-scale education facility buildings in Singapore.
The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore is adopting sustainable materials and innovative construction methods to develop its campus. The latest project, Academic Building South (ABS), is a true showcase of sustainable construction and largely utilising Stora Enso CLT to be the new home for Nanyang Business School. At 40,000 m2, it will be one of the largest wooden buildings in Asia upon completion later this year.
“Following the Singapore Management University (SMU) campus building completed in 2019, this is already the second significant learning environment with wood to Singapore,” says Erkki Välikangas, Stora Enso Building Solutions Sales Director in Asia. “I am really happy to see increasing number of projects completed with sustainable, renewable wood in this region.”
