{"id":26046,"date":"2025-06-05T16:38:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T06:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=26046"},"modified":"2025-06-05T16:38:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T06:38:47","slug":"why-australia-is-still-punching-above-its-weight-in-timber-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/why-australia-is-still-punching-above-its-weight-in-timber-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Australia (is Still) Punching Above its Weight in Timber Design"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

More Aussie architects, engineers, and designers are embracing timber in projects\u2014great and small\u2014according to Andrew Dunn, the long-time organiser of the Australian Timber Design Awards. Dunn said schemes like Barrie Harrop\u2019s 31-storey hotel in Adelaide<\/a> and the rejuvenation of the Public Trustee Building in Brisbane <\/a>\u2013 both announced over the past 48 hours \u2013 prove that Australia punches well above its weight when it comes to timber architecture and design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve only got to look at the award winners from last year, including the Bates Smart-designed Australian embassy in Washington DC \u2013 recipient of the Australian Timber Design Grand Prize, as well as the Berninneit Cultural and Community Centre \u2013 which Anthony Burke, the host of Restoration Australia and Grand Designs Australia, said was Australia\u2019s most sustainable timber building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Click here to nominate<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Now in its 26th year, Dunn said that the deadline for nominations for this year\u2019s award categories is fast approaching \u2013 June 12, 2025\u2014with the judging panel expecting the calibre of entries to surpass previous years: \u201cThe Awards promote and encourage outstanding timber design,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cIt is open to anyone involved in designing or building structures that\u00a0 feature timber, ranging from large-scale projects involving mass timber to recycled and framed timber projects in the residential industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What goes into a successful application? We spoke to a past judge!<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

According to David Rawlinson, a three-time judge of the awards, the key is to state the ways that timber use positively contributes to a project\u2019s sustainability. \u201cFor example, as a key element in Passivhaus design, how timber provides increased thermal resistance and hence reduces heating and cooling load, or the fact that timber reduces the mass of the building and hence the size of the substructure required.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerhaps it\u2019s the way that mass timber can help dematerialise an open plan office with exposed timber soffits, columns and beams with no finishes required, or the way that the use of Design for Manufacture and Assembly can help the building to be disassembled at the end of its life, hence providing a focus for circular design thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are many more that could be included, so to stand out from the crowd, it\u2019s essential to focus on these additional advantages that the use of timber provides,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom a broader architectural perspective, it\u2019s also important to highlight how the exemplary use of timber has contributed to the building\u2019s essential essence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More Aussie architects, engineers, and designers are embracing timber in projects\u2014great and small\u2014according to Andrew Dunn, the long-time organiser of the Australian Timber Design Awards. Dunn said schemes like Barrie Harrop\u2019s 31-storey hotel in Adelaide and the rejuvenation of the Public Trustee Building in Brisbane \u2013 both announced over the past 48 hours \u2013 prove that Australia punches well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[3,38,50,88,37,46,39],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":{"0":"post-26046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-architecture","8":"category-architecture-and-design","9":"category-australia","10":"category-awards","11":"category-building-and-construction","12":"category-industry","13":"category-mass-timber"},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jason","display_name":"Jason Ross","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/J-Ross-headshot.jpeg","url2x":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/J-Ross-headshot.jpeg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26048,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26046\/revisions\/26048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26046"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=26046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}