Subsequent in our Timber Revolution collection, we profile a college laboratory by Austrian studio Nussmüller Architekten that was conceived as each an advert and a testing centre for the capabilities of mass timber.
Constructed on the flip of the millennium, the Bau Technik Zentrum (BTZ), which interprets because the Building Expertise Centre, was commissioned to accommodate the timber-engineering division at Graz College of Expertise (TU Graz) in Austria.
“The rector of the Technical College got here to our workplace and gave us instantly the order for this mission,” recalled Nussmüller Architekten founder Werner Nussmüller.
“In response to my query of why he selected our workplace, he answered: you’re the just one who has the expertise in cross-laminated timber building and you’ll handle to deliver a ready-made design in two months,” he advised Dezeen.
Web site of early CLT analysis
The BTZ was a major early mass-timber constructing. It was one of many first examples of panel-system mass-timber building, and the primary timber constructing with a curved roof, in keeping with Nussmüller.
Moreover, it grew to become the place the place a lot of the early technical analysis that led to cross-laminated timber (CLT) turning into a sensible constructing materials happened.
The constructing itself and the groundbreaking work performed right here have been partly based mostly on the imaginative and prescient of Gerhard Schickhofer.
Schickhofer’s PhD thesis on the massive potential of laminated timber panels layered in alternating instructions, accomplished at TU Graz in 1994, was instrumental within the growth of CLTÂ as a product.
In 2004, three years after the BTZ was accomplished, Schickhofer launched the Institute for Timber Engineering and Wooden Expertise on the constructing the place it stays at present.
Reminiscent of a giant shed, the 4,800-square-metre constructing incorporates a laboratory corridor used for timber-construction experiments, along with places of work and workshops.
It was designed to showcase new methods of connecting CLT panels, in addition to their load-bearing capability.
A key function is the big cover roof over the laboratory corridor. Curved plates of CLT act together with a metal trestle-and-tension-rod construction to allow a span of round 20 metres.
Every roof factor is made up of two CLT plates that meet within the center, with metal rods working by way of them.
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As defined in a 2005 doctoral thesis on mass-timber constructions by Andreas Falk at LuleÃ¥ Technical College in Sweden, this unconventional strategy reduces the quantity of uncooked materials required and helps the constructing’s CLT partitions take the burden.
Timber studs on the high of the partitions assist the roof, making a lantern impact to maximise the quantity of sunshine contained in the lab.
“We altogether have been very fortunate”
Earlier than the launch of the institute in 2004, the BTZ additionally housed the college’s concrete and metal analysis departments, which was mirrored in its design.
In addition to the metal within the roof construction, BTZ additionally has in depth glazing in its shorter partitions and a sturdy concrete base.
“The purpose of the mission was to indicate the precise duties of all analysis departments within the constructing,” defined Nussmüller. “So we determined in a short time to make use of all three supplies for the development of the constructing.”
“The supplies of the development and surfaces ought to present the concepts of various departments and may promote the satisfaction of all he members of the mission.”
Twenty-two years on from its completion and regardless of mass-timber expertise having moved on considerably, Nussmüller stays pleased with the mission.
“We altogether have been very fortunate that we managed a constructing with so many unknown particulars,” he mentioned.
“We’re proud that the investor and us took a lot danger – and managed it. It is nonetheless standing and in good situation, though some issues needed to be repaired within the meantime.”
The pictures is by Paul Ott. The drawings are courtesy of Nussmüller Architekten.
Timber Revolution
This text is a part of Dezeen’s Timber Revolution collection, which explores the potential of mass timber and asks whether or not going again to wooden as our main building materials can lead the world to a extra sustainable future.
