They have fitted out court houses, prisons, universities and museums and now New Plymouth’s Jones and Sandford Joinery is turning its hand to a Buddhist temple. Source: Stuff.co.nz, Fairfax NZ News
Work on designing and building the domed ceiling for an Auckland Buddhist temple is close to completion.
Once the American maple timber lining arrives and is fitted into place, the structure will be trucked to Auckland for installation.
“They come to us with an idea of what they are after and I have to come up with how to do it,” said designer Dave Roskilly. “We’ve never done anything like this before.”
The 14.5 metre by 12.5m domed ceiling has a “skeleton” of 80 vertical ribs that slot into nine horizontal supports.
Every piece of the plywood frame is cut by a computer-controlled router. Saws are not even allowed on the workshop floor.
“If we have to use a saw, it means we haven’t got the plan right,” said owner Roger Jones.
Employing 30 people, the New Plymouth firm gets 95% of its business from outside Taranaki.
They were the joiners for the 2400 diagonal timber panels winding up in an elliptical orb towards a glass ceiling in New Zealand’s Supreme Court.
They outfitted Auckland’s Wiri men’s prison, were integral in the Waikato University accommodation upgrade and have helped with exhibitions at Te Papa.
“Plans will come in for a job like this one for the temple in Auckland.
“The builders will try and build this dome on site, but it’s quite difficult,” Jones said. “What we do is look for work like this. We say to the builders, ‘We can do this smarter and quicker with our technology’.”
It is estimated the dome will take 1200 hours to complete.
