Award recognises NZ timber seismic design excellence

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Prestigious international structural award recognises NZ timber seismic design excellence

21 November 2011

The Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology and Arts (NMIT) building’s sustainable timber seismic design was announced as a winner at The Institution of Structural Engineers UK’s Structural Awards 2011 ceremony held in London on 18 November.

Winning the Education / Healthcare Structures category in these prestigious international awards positions Aurecon amongst the world’s most talented structural designers and acknowledges its indispensable contribution to the built environment.

Aurecon’s highly innovative "all timber" building design has a seismic bracing system which is a world first application of rocking LVL shear walls based on PRESSS technology. The building also employs several new timber structural systems for floors, beams and columns that truly demonstrate the ability of structural timber for use in multi storey construction. All structural timber components were grown, milled, manufactured and erected within an 80km radius of Nelson.

Carl Devereux, Aurecon Technical Director and lead structural engineer for the NMIT project says “The NMIT building demonstrates that sustainable multi storey timber buildings are not only achievable but affordable. The project also demonstrates that a high level of earthquake protection is achievable and affordable for all building owners and with the recent earthquakes in Christchurch in mind this innovation in design should be demanded by all building owners.”

The NMIT building has also won a number of New Zealand awards throughout 2011 including the Property Council New Zealand Rider Levett Bucknall Awards (excellence in the Education & Arts award category) and the New Zealand Wood Timber Design awards 2011 (Winner of the Commercial Engineering Excellence).

Aurecon’s Global Head of Innovation, Kourosh Kayvani says “For Aurecon to win such a prestigious global award is fantastic recognition for our teams working in our centre of excellence in seismic engineering. Such prestigious global acknowledgement for this innovative project highlights our leadership in damage limiting seismic design and our ability to deliver excellent solutions to address the full range of client needs globally.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

Aurecon provides engineering, management, and specialist technical services for public and private sector clients globally. We provide world-class technical expertise and innovative solutions on projects in over 70 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. We seek to foster human achievement in all aspects of our work.

With more than 7,000 staff located around the world, including 500 New Zealand staff located in eight offices across New Zealand, we can deliver expert project design and management across 11 core industry sectors.

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