{"id":16721,"date":"2026-02-09T19:26:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=16721"},"modified":"2026-02-09T19:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:26:14","slug":"sunshine-coasts-100m-timber-rich-campus-tackles-inequality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/sunshine-coasts-100m-timber-rich-campus-tackles-inequality\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunshine Coast’s $100m Timber Rich Campus Tackles Inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The University of the Sunshine Coast’s Moreton Bay campus is fast becoming one of Australia’s most important showcases for timber construction, with Forestry Australia’s Queensland Branch to tour the timber\u2011rich precinct on Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, more than $240 million has been spent on building the campus, with Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Helen Bartlett cutting the ribbon on three new buildings in April 2024, bringing the total to 16,000 square metres of teachable space on Queensland’s fastest-growing university campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeeing the campus highlights how timber construction is already delivering high-performance, working buildings at scale,\u201d according to Dr Sam Van Holsbeeck, who is organising the Field Trip – Building with Timber Construction, Performance and Design Life<\/em>, which involves a tour of USC’s National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life and a trip to iTreat’s timber treatment plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Click here to register for the field tour<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Wood Central tracked the progress of the massive project, which used more than 2,000 pre-finished interior AC-iHoop and Ariaply throughout the buildings. At the time, Scott Matthews, the Joint CEO of Austal Plywoods, revealed that plywood was “cost-effective and delivered ready to install.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Built by Badge Construction and designed by KIRK Studio – at the forefront of Australia’s push to embrace mass timber design\u2014and Cottee Parker, the three buildings each use a prefabricated mass timber superstructure, combining HESS Timber’s glulam and Xlam’s cross-laminated timber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Richard Kirk, principal of KIRK Studio, using both prefabrication and mass timber “has proven to sequester carbon using renewable timber feedstock to significantly reduce construction time, reduce waste, and support safer and quieter construction sites.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirk is Queensland’s pre-eminent expert in mass timber design and has been responsible for the design of almost all mass timber buildings in Queensland.<\/a> “The exposed timber structure, generous windows and large light-filled atriums produce an entirely new open typology for UniSC \u2014 fit for a young university unconstrained by traditional ways,” KIRK Studio said<\/a>, adding that “the design showcases the University as an active, growing campus and produces a sense of gravity – drawing in students, staff and community members alike.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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