Timber iQ August - September 2020 // Issue: 50 August - September 2020 | Page 32

PERSONALITY PROFILE
It was shortly after completing the Bontebok National Park project
that Cronje decided to start his own practice with the intention that
his focus would be 100% on timber buildings to address the niche
market he had observed. He moved to Cape Town and started
Jacques Cronje Timber Design in 2007.
“If I had to summarise the start of my career I would say my love for
timber took me to Knysna and I was embedded [at that time] in the
heart of the timber industry, and also where timber construction was
pioneered in South Africa,” says Cronje.
Not only is Cronje multi-talented in the construction space, he also
branched out into timber product design in 2014. This was due to his
interest in becoming more involved in digital fabrication, which at the
time was also not a big element of the industry. It was through this
product development that he would learn the CNC fabrication that is
currently being seen in much of the architecture space and timberbuilding
techniques in Europe. In future, Cronje aims to combine his
experience in timber architecture and timber product development.
INSPIRATION
Cronje believes his inspiration comes from an affinity with nature, the
same sentiments any person who is passionate about wood feels.
Wood, being a natural product, has a good feel to it and generally
people are attracted to it.
“There is no other material that, when you work with it, you want to
run your hand over it and see how it feels – if you walk into a building
that has timber wall panels or columns, standing next to a timber
column you will touch it and feel it – it’s like an automatic response.
You will rarely see someone touching a concrete column to see what
it feels like – wood is an innate thing for humans that bonds to what
we have inside ourselves,” says Cronje.
STANDARDS AND CERTIFICATION
Cronje is a member of the sub-committee that recently drafted the
updates to the SANS-082 standard, the code for timber frame
building in South Africa, and produced most of the diagrams for the
standard. From a legal point of view, Cronje believes standards are
important simply because you need assurance that if something goes
wrong, you would be covered by laws or insurances. For example, if
you build a guesthouse and the balustrades are not according to
standard, a guest may fall over it and you would be liable.
In Cronje’s opinion however, many South African standards are quite
out-dated when compared to what is happening in the rest of the
world, particularly around timber. Certain regulations are very
conservative and also very restrictive. Considering timber buildings
around the world, South Africa has a long way to go in terms of
catching up. Cronje advises that companies and individuals should
always perform their own due diligence, but stick to the regulations in
place. Should an application require rational design, then this should
be sought out.
“If you look at what is happening in countries like Canada, the US, and
Australia, these countries are constructing 18-storey timber buildings,
which shows that they are many years ahead of South Africa in terms
of making the most of what timber has to offer,” notes Cronje.
WHY PROMOTE TIMBER
From a technical point of view, timber is a sustainable option. Cronje
considers wood as a truly renewable resource and likens the use of
timber in construction to that of, for example, using carrots in your
meal – when you eat carrots you are not ‘using up’ the carrots,
because more carrots are planted and this is exactly the same with
the wood used in construction.
There are many cries of ‘we are using up all of the forests’ – but this is
not the case at all – wood is a crop, you harvest it, you use it, replant
and grow more, while at the same time storing carbon. Cronje further
notes an international study that shows an example of a replacement
time, or re-growing time of wood used in a multi-storey timber
building, which was as little as every 15 minutes.
“International organisations are able to determine very complex
calculations in carbon footprints and growing times of various species
of trees around the world, as far down to how much energy is used
through electricity and transportation in a particular country when
producing a timber product. South Africa for example, has a very high
carbon footprint when it comes to electricity because we are
coal-driven. We need to understand that there is a continuous
production of wood and trees which are being grown across the
globe to cater to timber construction, making wood a completely
environmentally sustainable resource compared to other similar
products,” says Cronje.
Timber is also a precise material to work with, and also generally a
cleaner material to work with. From a design point of view, Cronje
adds, it requires more accuracy because it’s not like brickwork that
will finish more or less in a particular position. Wood is designed
according to exact dimensions and tolerances, which has its own
challenges.
MOST SIGNIFICANT
Cronje shares that one of his favourite projects was the Bontebok
National Park – the little cottages that were built, and the milestone to
the next steps in his career. The simple reason was that they were
really compact units, with everyone having access to them. The client
brief was to make these cottages as efficient as possible. The units
were thus designed around modular sizes of wood and standard
dimensions around everything including the decking and the
structure. These units were not like conventional timber-framed
buildings where you finish off with plaster boards or timber cladding
– all the elements of the structure are exposed which clearly
expresses the rational logic of the design.
“For me, the best part of any project is when it is only half built and
you can see the structure and the logic behind the design. I also
always look forward to my next project because that is where the
design and initial concepts come in, which is exciting,” says Cronje.
WHAT CHANGES ARE IN STORE FOR THE
SECTOR?
Perception. Cronje believes that timber buildings still suffer from a
perception problem in South Africa, where conservative tastes still
favour ‘solid’ brick and mortar construction, so if there is one thing he
could change, it would be the perception around timber homes. Further,
that more people could have the opportunity to live in and experience a
timber home so that their ideas of this technology will change.
“Once people have lived in a timber home they almost always don’t
want to change back. You find anecdotally that people love timber
homes but too few people have the opportunity to live in them,”
adds Cronje.
30 AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2020 // www.timberiq.co.za