Engineers impressed with LVL

NPIL hosted a party of 60 engineers for a site visit in August. The CIB W18 International Council For Research And Innovation In Building And Construction meets annually around the world and was scheduled to meet in Christchurch this year. Organiser Andy Buchanan from Canterbury University says he talked them into switching to Nelson so they could visit NPIL to see LVL being made, and also visit the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Arts and Media building to see the product in use. This building is the first in the world to include post-tensioned LVL shear walls for wind and earthquake resistance.

The engineers represent 15 different countries and are all involved in the use of wood products in the construction sector. Professor Hans Blass from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany said LVL is a very controlled material with fewer variations in properties than glue-laminated products.

Pierre Quenneville, Professor of Timber Design, said the NMIT Arts and Media building is a very good example of LVL being used in a multi-story application.
“Bringing everyone together, the manufacturer, the fabricator and the erector into one team as has been done on this building is a very good thing,” he said. “It will benefit the LVL industry for people to have this example to see – the clients wins and it is good for the environment too.”

Senior Lecturer Hugh Morris added that letting people walk into a real building, to see and feel and get a sense of how it works would help to give them confidence to build in wood.

To see more photos of the NMIT building under construction visit our gallery