25 King Street, ten storey high office building in Bowen Hills in Brisbane is currently being built with CLT supplied by Stora Enso and engineered and processed by Lendlease. CLT - Cross Laminated Timber is a massive wooden construction material being used for floors and walls. Gluelam structural beams and columns were selected to complete the construction in order to maximise the usable open office space.
“Our modern CLT elements are one example of Stora Enso’s vast product portfolio of wood based building products. We are continuously developing our products and building solutions enabling longer spans and optimising material usage to provide more saleable square meters. 25 King Street is yet another example of the benefits of continuous innovation and close partnership between Lendlease and Stora Enso delivering ground-breaking landmark projects in Australia,” says Erkki Välikangas responsible for Stora Enso business development in Australia.
CLT by Stora Enso has been used in other Lendlease projects in Australia, for example, Library at the Dock in Melbourne and International House Sydney in Sydney. “We are proud being able to serve Australians with this truly renewable and sustainable construction material.”
Wooden building offers also other advantages: for example, CLT elements are pre-fabricated before delivery to construction site, which means less time and resources use, less waste and less disturbances on-site and in the surrounding community.
“This building is planned to stay well for a half of century but when demolished, wooden elements can still be recycled or re-used to build a new building. At the very end of their life cycle wooden elements can be used for sustainable energy,” Erkki Välikangas continues.
Comfortable carbon storage
In total, the building is using over 6000 cubic meters of CLT and glulam. On an average summer day, this amount of trees are grown in Austrian forest in less than two hours. Stora Enso sources only European wood for its manufacturing through its third party verified supply chains. The forest regeneration is taken care of by planting new trees.
“The amount of wood we provide for 25 King Street creates a significant carbon storage. For example, the amount of carbon stored in 25 King Street equals average annual car emissions of more than 1600 Queenslander drivers,” Erkki Välikangas describes.
Using wood in an office building has environmental benefits other materials cannot meet, but it also creates comfortable spaces – that is part of the reason why the interiors of the new office building are left exposed. Research around the world gives evidence that wooden interiors create spaces that increase well-being.
The building is targeting 6 Star Green Star Design. It will be finalised in late 2018.
