TimberLab Portal Frames, Retirement Village, Queenstown,  New Zealand

Project Description

CREDITS: Client: Arvida Queenstown Country Club / Architect: Warren and Mahoney / Engineer: Ruamoko Solutions / Builder: Kobe Construction

The Project

TimberLab Solutions’ Glulam portal frames and trusses were used to provide feature structural elements at the recently constructed Queenstown Country Club, a premium retirement development in Frankton.

The pool area featured steep Glulam portal frames on a 40-degree pitch which were architecturally exposed. All connection details were concealed to limit the amount of metalwork fixings exposed to the corrosive pool environment; knee joints have internal steel rods epoxy fixed and apex/base connections have embedded knife plates with through-bolts. Timber columns were designed to sit on steel plinths to prevent end-grain water absorption and the timber was treated to H3.2 (MCA) and with an oil-based surface coating applied once installed.

To save installation time onsite, the rafter and knee connection was fixed together in our East Tamaki factory and delivered to site as ½ portals. The only connections required onsite were 4x bolts to the base and 8x bolts to the apex!

TimberLab Glulam is the perfect material for indoor aquatic centres where high humidity and chlorine or salt-rich air can cause some other materials to corrode.

The feature trusses in the main building consisted of large Glulam band-sawn chords and braces. Trusses spanning 11m consisted of components up to 450mm x 270mm in section size. To save installation time, each truss component was pre-assembled in our East Tamaki factory and delivered to site as ½ trusses. Components were connected using hidden steel plates and through bolts. TimberLab supplied all metalwork fixings associated with the timber components which were 3D modelled in-house to ensure full co-ordination with our CNC fabricated timber elements.