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The main timber structure of NIOA’s new headquarters in Brisbane has been assembled in “record time”.
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Construction firm BESIX Watpac has set up the main timber structure for Queensland-based defence company NIOA’s expanded facility in Brisbane.
According to BESIX, the five-storey building was constructed in "record time".
“Because all the provisions for services are pre-cut at the factory, we had to do a lot of groundwork with the shop drawings to make sure everything was right so when the panels arrived onsite, they were right to go up,” BESIX Watpac site manager Ben Rowlands said.
“We’re really proud of the way it’s come together.”
NIOA CEO Robert Nioa said developers ensured the expansion project caused minimal disruption to work undertaken in the existing facility.
“We've got an operating site here, it's very busy, so this product, the innovation in this product, was about reducing disruption and minimising the time on site,” he said.
“The Watpac team has been wonderful to deal with, very professional team, certainly hitting all of our schedule, and working with our team.”
Architect and principal at Kirk, Dr Andrew Magub, lauded the design of the expanded structure.
“We think this will become a new typology of office buildings, column free space, smaller floor plates, but stacked vertically,” he said.
“We're anticipating from the research we've seen that this timber building will produce a better work environment than a traditional office environment.”
The expanded Brisbane facility — built using Australian-grown and manufactured Glue Laminated Timber beams and Cross Laminated Timber panels — joins the Rheinmetall NIOA building in Maryborough as the first in Queensland to be built from local material.
Hyne Timber and XLam supplied the sustainable engineered product sourced from plantation grown timber.
Rob Mansell, technical sales representative for XLam, commented, “It’s great for our employees who manufacture the engineered timber see their work coming together for an exceptional office space for the future.”
[Related: NIOA approached to support AH-64E Apache delivery]
