WANAKA RECREATION CENTRE

Project Description

CREDITS:  Designer: Holmes Consulting / Architects: Warren & Mahoney

Allowing for heavy snow loads and high winds, the massive Glulam frames that form the back bone of this structure, make an impressive impact in this stylish Warren & Mahoney inspired facility.

When Holmes Consulting were designing the series of 30m span Glulam portals for the new Wanaka Aquatic Centre, TimberLab was able to assist with developing a workable solution for some tricky details.

The roof member is one continuous Glulam beam; 27m long – 1530mm deep and 280m wide, each weighing about 5,000kg. The columns are a similar size but tapered to 800mm at the base. Connecting the roof beam to the columns are 2 massive steel hubs. Precise accuracy was required to fix the 24 threaded rods at each end of the columns and rafter to exactly match the big steel brackets that were supplied by the main contractor – Cook Bros. However, the real challenge TimberLab faced, was how to embed the three-way steel bracing connector brackets that needed to be fabricated into the middle of the Glulam beams during manufacture. To make matters harder, the bracing brackets had stub extensions that protruded 200mm either side of the main beams.

The solution once again called on the unique capabilities of Timberlab’s 5 axis CNC bridge which straddled the 27m long x 1.530m wide beams and formed exactly the correct rebates and slots to allow the complex mechanism to fit together in the final fabrication.

Transported all the way from the East Tamaki factory in Auckland to site in Wanaka, TimberLab has demonstrated again our capability of supplying engineered timber structures anywhere from North Cape to Invercargill. The pre-finished beams were carefully assembled and installed by Cook Bros’ carpenters and the end result is a tribute to all involved.