Forte already turns two – storeys

Andrew Neiland of Lend Lease has said that the first two storeys of its Forte cross laminated timber (CLT) building have been constructed and the project is going to schedule. Mr Neiland presented an update at the Frame Australia Conference. Source: Timberbiz
Forte hits a number of firsts for CLT building in Australia and internationally. It will be the first high rise timber apartment building in Australia and at 10 storeys the tallest in the world. Though it won’t be the tallest residential timber construction in the world, a lonely homebuilder in Russia who had too much time on his hands and kept adding storeys to his house has a narrow height advantage.
Neiland said that the building came about in a roundabout fashion when the company needed to investigate construction of buildings at Victoria Harbour in Melbourne’s dockland precinct. The company needed to find a lighter weight alternative to conventional concrete construction.
The company travelled worldwide to investigate possible alternatives and then conducted three years of duel diligence before deciding on building Forte from CLT, which is manufactured in Austria and shipped to Australia.
“It’s not a material substitute, it’s a different design,” said Neiland of Forte. He listed a number of defining issues that are leading Lend Lease to look at constructing up to half of its apartment complexes from CLT in the future.
He said the company considers safety a very important issue. CLT takes the high-risk jobs offsite and by bringing them into a controlled environment it reduces the risks even more. Another substantial reduction is in time but it adds efficiency plus the finish is high quality.
Lend Lease has a website for the building www.forteliving.com.au where you can view live webcasts of the construction site as the building goes up.