Queensland has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver a Games that offers a lasting legacy not just for Brisbane but all parts of Australia —and the answer could lie in better timber use and smarter design.
That is according to Professor Keith Crews – Director at the Australian Research Council’s Research Hub to Advance Timber for Australia’s Future Built Environment – who spoke to Wood Central about the 2032 Games: “It involves careful design and use of products like cross-laminated and frame timber. You know, there are some places where you would put cross-laminated timber, and it’s a waste of timber resources. So, we need to be cognizant. We want to use our resources. We want to maximise the use of the resource so we can use it further in the future.”
Pointing to the Athletes Village – slated to be built using mass timber – Professor Crews said the key is to design and build the accommodation in such a way that it can be repurposed into high-value apartments after the Olympics: “That creates a very interesting business model because then, we’re not building this for a six-month period but a 50-year design lifecycle that flows back to the supply chain.”
“Let’s think about this as buildings that are going to be there for 50 years, not five years now; in the past, it’s often just been the stadiums that people think about, not the ancillary buildings or the support buildings, which, incidentally, would use significantly more amounts of timber than if we just built a stadium.”
Professor Keith Crews on the importance of building infrastructure for a 50 year design life.
To do this properly, the organisers will need to look beyond Queensland and Australia for timber supply: “If we really want widespread use of timber in the Olympics and the period leading up to the Olympics, we’re not going to supply that just out of Queensland, and we probably won’t supply it just from Australia either,” Professor Crews said, who said timber used in Olympic infrastructure must not freeze out the existing housing market.
Repurposing infrastructure for a long-term legacy
Professor Crews—who is also organising the World Conference on Timber Engineering later this year—said one advantage of using timber in infrastructure is that it can easily be deconstructed, flat-packed, and used in Northern Queensland or Central Queensland following the games.
“For example, small buildings – used as meeting rooms for the Olympics – could be turned into community centres or libraries after the games. All of these things are possible with cross-laminated timber and timber framing, but it requires clever design and design detailing.”
Professor Crews on thinking outside the box when it comes to timber use and clever design.
Then there are things like the seating: “There are so many things that we could be looking at that we can use timber with the idea that we’re going to repurpose it, and so when we’re designing it, in the first instance, we’re designing with two uses in mind, we’re taking account of the fact that we’re going to disassemble it and then reassemble it into something new.”
But before the games, Queensland will host the World Conference on Timber Engineering.
As the Chairman of this year’s World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE) – to be held in Brisbane from June 22 to 26, Professor Crews said that the development of Australia’s timber economy, especially over the past 12-15 years, has put it on the map: “That there’s a level of innovation that’s occurred, and some of it’s been technology transferred out of Europe.”
“We haven’t sought to reinvent the wheel, but we’ve done well with innovating, consolidated the engineering or the scientific basis, and engaged with architects and developers as practitioners.”
Professor Crews – Chairman of WCTE 2025 – on Australia’s edge on timber construction.
Poised to be one of the largest timber conferences on record, the 2025 WCTE is focused on six themes: “Material Performance and Durability, Sustainability and Timber in the Circular Economy, Timber Engineering and Structural Performance, Timber Architecture and Biophilic Design, Education, Innovation and Challenges, and importantly, Exemplars and Construction Case Studies.”
Please Note: This is a snippet from a Wood Central exclusive interview with Professor Keith Crews – the conference chairman for WCTE 2025. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.
