EVENTS
Carla Jooste – The Wood Student Foundation winner 2019 – an
HWZ initiative, is a Candidate Senior Architectural Technologist at
OLA, Cape Town. Jooste spoke of her experience as the winner
which took her to Domesi/Prodesi Studio, the Novatop factory and
her positive view on timber as a material and its essential future in
South Africa. A significant aspect she noted overseas was that they
experience the same problems we have like waterproofing, rotting
insulation, and so on. “They make provisions for these factors,
much as we do in South Africa,” she said. Jooste spoke with
passion about architecture and its role in timber housing in the
future. Timber iQ’s ‘Personality Profile’ article features more on Carla
Jooste in our February-March issue.
Phillipus Rudolph (Rudy) Botha, founder of Werkhof Architects
and Engineers, spoke about the challenges of ‘Floating Fynbos’
and the challenges of building with timber where the vegetation
disturbance had to be kept to a minimum or not at all. His
discussion on the project revealed that the foundations were
minimised, a mild steel platform cantilevers was used as the floor
and an exposed timber super structure was utilised.
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Thor Olav Solbjør, CEO of SAAHA, Norway, presented the
Bjergsted Financial Park (the bank made of wood), where the
client made it clear that timber was the chosen material for the
main structure. He affirmed the challenge of the notion of a
strong, robust bank, whilst breaking ground for the use of
structural timber.
Prof Brand Wessels, Senior
Lecturer in Wood Science,
and Chairman: Department
of Forest and Wood Science
at Stellenbosch University,
spoke about whether locally
produced wood materials
become the dominant
construction material for South
African residential buildings.
Prof Brand Wessels, senior
lecturer in Wood Science, and
chairman: Department of Forest
and Wood Science, Stellenbosch
University, spoke about whether
locally produced wood materials
become the dominant
construction material for South
African residential buildings. A
study conducted by his
department begged the question,
“Does South Africa have the forest
resources to sustain a wood-
based residential building sector?”
The objective of the study was to
quantify the reduction in global
warming potential and embodied
energy possible. The study further
compared the different future
building market scenarios.
Two vital outcomes were that if all new residential constructions
were wood-based, the total embodied energy and global warming
potential will decrease by 30%, and in the long-term South Africa
could supply all the timber required for building, but in the
short-term timber would need to be imported.
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WHAT THE DELEGATES AND SPEAKERS
HAD TO SAY
Here are some of the comments from attendees:
• "Thank you for having the Minister as a guest and for
affording him the opportunity to address your conference.
The Minister wishes to thank the team for the excellent
services.” – Spokesperson for MEC Simmers
• “Firstly I would just like to say a huge thank you for the Wood
Conference – we were spoilt rotten in a lovely venue with
great presentations and to go with that loads of lovely food
and drinks, paid parking and goodie bags with the biggest
slab of Lindt chocolate ever, thank you!” – Michel Pierre Levin
www.timberiq.co.za
1 - 4 Networking and some face-to-face time with exhibitors.
// APRIL / MAY 2020
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