CARTERTON EVENTS CENTRE

Carterton, New Zealand

Project Description

CREDITS: Opus / Connor Boyd Photography

Expanding Timber Options – Giant Timber Trusses Use New Technology.

Earthquake Resistant Timber Shear Walls; the lightweight and efficient alternative to concrete tilt up shear walls. Eleven substantial  timber shear walls 2.4m wide by 6.7m high and 180mm thick.

Fabricated from LVL, these giant trusses were fabricated at TimberLab (previously McIntosh) plant and transported 650 km to Carterton to form the major structural elements for the new events centre. Spanning 25m the deepest of the trusses stands at 4.8m.

Using standard billets of LVL, TimberLab take these flat sheets and fabricate them into specially designed structural beams capable of spanning long distances and carrying substantial loads. Fabricating the raw LVL into composite beams and columns requires particular care and experience in order to avoid serious performance problems. Accurate machining and careful gluing mean stringent quality controls need to be maintained throughout the whole process.

While the visual appearance of LVL may be somewhat industrial it provides a strong and stiff structural material. In an exposed application at the Carterton Events Centre the fabricated LVL trusses have been painted black.

Efficient Connectors; another innovation by TimberLab and a first for New Zealand, these achieved a substantial cost saving for the client by offering an alternative to the heavy connector plates and large bolts originally proposed for the truss connections.

Earthquake Resistant Timber Shear Walls; in what is becoming a light weight and efficient alternative to concrete tilt up shear walls, TimberLab manufactured 11 large  timber shear walls 2.4m wide, 6.7m high and 180mm thick. They were fabricated from LVL panels and incorporated vertical hollow sections for locating steel post tension ties that create efficient earthquake resistant shear walls.