COVER STORY
The University of Pretoria’ s Future Africa Institute campus marries green design and alternative thinking through timber.
strength and dimensional properties. It’ s commonly made from birch, spruce, poplar and pine veneers or in various combinations of these four.
ENDLESS PRODUCTS, ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES
Universal Plywoods thrives on providing the best possible products in the niche sector of engineered wood. Their range is extensive for various industries including construction, transport, furniture and have other uses in special industries such as parquet, die-cutting, packaging, shelving, racking and mezzanine flooring.
“ We don’ t expect every architect to move away from the traditional brick and mortar, however, there is a great shift towards an amazing timber product called cross-laminated timber( CLT), which is produced from gluing layers of solidsawn lumber together. It’ s regarded as one of the world’ s most advanced building materials,” highlights Anderson.
CLT has numerous benefits – it creates an ambient and balanced room temperature, whether it’ s hot or cold, so energy consumption is minimal. Another plus for this product is the speed in which you can build with it is incredibly quick, and it also lends itself to creating jobs. On the topic of job creation, Universal Plywoods is big on skills development throughout its operational chain.
“ We also import Ultralam Laminated Veneer Lumber( LVL), a highly specialised product with numerous applications. The mills that produce these products are of a high calibre and are among some of the most sophisticated timber engineering facilities available in the world, which South Africa would not( likely) invest in as they are quite costly – to develop one of these LVL plants locally, we are looking at an average spend of about R1.5-billion.”
In terms of venturing into this type of investment on South African soil, Anderson believes it’ s a bold move to make, not only financially but also due to a lack of demand for LVL products in the country. He adds that LVL is used extensively in America, Europe and Australia and garners great potential for the African timber sector.
WOOD FOR OUR AFRICAN FUTURE
Anderson highlights that Universal Plywoods is passionate about importing and introducing very high end engineered wood products to the South African market and beyond. What’ s more intriguing about Universal Plywoods’ niche products is that they are eco-friendly and give back to the environment. Anderson notes that all the company’ s products are sustainable and Forest Stewardship Council( FSC) certified.
“ These products are quite refreshing because they possess an immense green footprint as this type of timber stores carbon and releases carbon back into the environment. Even once a building is complete, carbon is still stored and released – from start to finish, it’ s all green,” he says.
“ Another one of our top European imported products, birch plywood – the‘ Rolls-Royce’ of plywood – is mainly used in concrete forming of high rise buildings. With birch plywood, which is incredibly strong, we make furniture and structural beams, which is practically and aesthetically utilised for the University of Pretoria’ s new Future Africa campus,” explains Anderson.
Nestled in the heart of South Africa’ s capital city, the University of Pretoria’ s fresh and naturally appealing Future Africa Institute campus has a strong focus on alternative thinking, green design and collaborative work. Designed by esteemed multi-award winning architect André Eksteen, co-director of Pretoria-based Earthworld Architects, the campus is a new hub of scientific discovery and innovation for the African continent.
Developed with the use of timber and other materials, the institute brings together leading international scholars and scientists from various disciplines to address the continent’ s challenges. Located on the university’ s experimental farm, Proefplaas, the campus is designed around a lifestyle of research excellence and collaboration. It features a dining hall, conference centre, research commons and 300 living units ranging from single bedrooms to family units.
TIMBER INTEGRITY
With more than 100 years of combined professional experience in the wood industry, Universal Plywoods has highly specialised staff and firmly believes in the mantra of ´ good business is our business ´. Anderson states that the company regards itself as a go-to timber industry leader that’ s sustainable – in every sense of the word.
As niche personalised timber pioneers in their own right, Universal Plywoods is here to provide all encompassing value adding services, backed by research, professionalism and guarantee.“ We are here to build a sustainable business and we will continue to draw expertise and inspiration from our global suppliers. Going forward, we want to pursue skills development and our training programmes which stem from our international professional staff members – driven by data, we are hellbent on being well run and well stocked.”
He adds,“ We will continue to add value to the market and the environment. We will keep up the specialised wood work – we are not going anywhere.”
Engineered Wood Products.
14 JUNE / JULY 2018 //