Award-winning speakers for commercial building conference
A national engineered wood design conference running in September in Rotorua features a strong line up of international
building specialists. Adam Strong of Strongbuild Commercial in Sydney, Australia is one of the keynote speakers. His
company just won an award for their client BluCHP for NSW from the Australian Housing Institute.
Strongbuild won the award for Australia’s largest cross-laminated timber building by weight, the Macarthur Gardens
residential apartments in Sydney. The project, the first of its kind in NSW, saw 2600 cubic metres of cross-laminated
timber (CLT) installed to create three towers, 6, 7 and 8 stories high, in just over six months.
Their client, BlueCHP, is a Sydney-based non-profit organisation. Comprising five community housing groups, it delivers
quality affordable housing for individuals experiencing shelter stress. Two towers at Macarthur Gardens are offered as
affordable rental to ‘key workers’ in the local area with the third sold on the open market. See http://bluechp.com.au/properties/macarthur-gardens/ for details.
Strongbuild was founded in 2000. They have expanded to compete aggressively in the multi-residential market for
retirement villages and townhouse developments. They established streamlined home building systems to improve
efficiencies. Strongbuild is also developing its own timber prefabrication plant with 40 staff near Sydney. The plant is
expected to be fully commissioned by November.
The apartments were built using innovative construction techniques by Strongbuild. They are finding a focus on
engineered wood is paying off. The company is a home multi-residential and retirement village builder in Sydney, the
Illawarra, Berry, the South Coast of NSW and the Southern Highlands. They currently have another 15 timber projects on
the books, including aged care, retirement, multi-residential, townhouses and detached homes.
The Rotorua Lakes Council are event partners promoting their successful “Wood-First” policy. The conference is set to be
part of a wood technology week of events coming to the city in September, including the FIEA WoodTECH 2017 two-day
conference and trade expo.
ends