Tall timber the way to go, says Jones
Real estate mogul to build one of the world’s tallest wooden buildings
One of the world’s tallest wooden buildings will be built in Wellington next year, says the man behind the project, real estate mogul Sir Bob Jones.
The office building, planned for the corner of Featherston St and Brandon St, will be 12 storeys high and about 52m tall.
Jones said the foundations of the building would be conventional reinforced steel, but the rest would be composed of timber.
“This is of particular importance to New Zealand as laminated timber is far more earthquake resilient and fire-resistant than steel or reinforced concrete, both of which buckle in earthquakes or fires,” Jones said.
“Laminated timber stays intact. It will also save on the cost of importing steel and is more environmentally friendly.”
The building will be solely luxury office suites, Jones said, and had been designed to a very high standard with significant earthquake proofing measures in place.
Jones said he did not have an exact figure on the cost of the project but it would be more cost effective using the laminated timber.
“All of these [wooden] buildings are going up everywhere,” Jones said. “There’s one planned for Vienna, Norway, Canada, it’s happening everywhere and these are commercial developers so we can assume that cost-wise it’s not an issue.
“It’s faster as well because pouring concrete on each floor takes a long time, but we’re not doing that. It’s like assembling a meccano set,” he said.
Jones said he had designed the building in collaboration with a Wellington architecture firm.
It’s faster as well because pouring concrete on each floor takes a long time, but we’re not doing that. It’s like assembling a meccano set. Sir Bob Jones (above)