EVENTS
He tackled the main misconceptions currently in the market around building with timber, busting the myths with examples and facts / reason.
From timber being a perceived fire risk to people thinking it’ s poorly insulated and an inferior building method, Paine busted all the myths, explaining why building with timber is actually a great choice.
PRE-MANUFACTURING
Pietro Russo, local architect, looked at‘ The art of premanufacturing the future’, tackling the topic of modular housing and prefabricated timber structures.
“ In recent years, the prefabrication of homes off-site has become one of the most promising developments,” said Russo.“ All over the world, developers have begun to adopt this process with the goal of revolutionising housing.”
From simple trailers and cottages, prefab homes are now taking the designer route and are fast becoming known as‘ the next big thing’. He ran through some interesting projects, showing just what is possible with modular housing and highlighting the advantages of going this route. A question and answer session followed, allowing delegates to interact with the speakers of the day.
After this it was time for lunch and networking.
STUDENT TIMBER STRUCTURES
After lunch, Barry Muller, Wood Technology lecturer of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University( NMMU)’ s George campus, shared some projects designed by his students. His talk centred around his experience of training students to use wood in timber structures. He explained how some of them designed their first structures using basic Excel!
His presentation discussed the importance of training students, the future decision makers, in the correct use of timber in structures. His course is very practical and hands on and the students have built some interesting projects over the years.
LARGEST WORLD SKIER
Jiri Oslizlo, CEO of Novatop, shared his experience of working with the Kuratle Group to put together the 62” tall wooden installation of a skier at the World Championships on Alpine skiing in St Moritz.
This incredible structure relied on the latest technology to design, cut and transport the various pieces of the sculpture which had to be put together in record-time as well to be ready in time for the event.
Oslizlo, with the help of Roger Kuratle showed some pictures of the various stages of the project to highlight just what an incredible feat this was!
DEGRADATION OF WOOD
Next up was Eliska Oberhofnerova of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague’ s Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences. Her topic‘ Surface degradation of wood exposed to external conditions in South Africa’ looked at the Hout Bay House research project to see how the material has fared after exposure to the elements.
She explored the building materials and methods used in this project and the implications of this on the weathering
Image: Jurgen Banda-Hansmann
of the structure over a nine-month period. With the use of graphs and charts, she explained the results that compared the treated samples with the untreated ones.
The result?“ The treated samples showed significantly more stable results than the untreated ones after nine months of weathering as expected,” she concluded.
PREFAB AND INNOVATION
The last official speaker of the day was Professor Heinrich Köster, board member of the Wood Construction Forum in Germany. His topic was‘ Prefabrication of wooden buildings: innovation in the areas of production and logistics’.
He looked at the potential of prefabrication, looking at the benefits that come with building this way – in particular wood construction. Prof Köster also considered more technical detail on how to start with prefabrication and what technology is available.
“ Prefabrication is the only way to increase the productivity in the construction of wooden buildings,” he said.“ Prefabrication has higher requirements in terms of planning and order preparation but the benefits a company can gain from this method is worth it.”
IN CONCLUSION
The speakers each received a token of appreciation for their involvement and at the end, the Kuratle family said a few words to thank Zaida Davids for her hard work in putting together the conference.
The formal presentations were followed by a few words by Elke Zwicker on her Ark Angels Educare project in the informal settlement of Overcome Heights. She invited the industry to get involved in this community project which aims to build a new day care for about 80 to 100 children on a piece of land they have obtained.
22 APRIL / MAY 2017 //