One of Australia’s largest timber multi-storey buildings has achieved practical completion in what represents the first Australian project in the T3 global portfolio.
According to global real estate firm Hines, the development uses mass timber building materials, which will reduce carbon emissions by 34% compared to standard concrete and steel construction.
The tower, designed by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, offers floor plates ranging from 900 to 1500 square metres, targeting a minimum of 5.5-star NABERS and 6-star Green Star ratings.
In July, Icon, the builder responsible for the development, confirmed that the project “topped out.”
In the weeks leading up to the top-out, the project team installed 1,260 timber components, a concrete roof slab at Level 15 and final lift shaft lids.
Mei Ching Doery is the Project Manager, and Chris Cornish, the Site Manager, has worked with the team on-site and collaborated with various parties to deliver outstanding results.
The building is constructed of mass timber encompassing two basement levels, five concrete podium levels and ten levels of exposed glulam post and beam structure with CLT floor panels.
Hines Asia Pacific CEO Ray Lawler says, “T3 Collingwood is a ground-breaking, sustainable evolution of old-fashioned office buildings.”
“The timber we use is rapidly renewable, sustainably sourced, cleaner to construct, and helps keep carbon out of the atmosphere.”
Now delivered, the 15-story timber building will be one of Australia’s largest mass timber buildings.
The project embodies Hines’s innovative Timber, Transit, Technology (T3) approach, which replaces traditional structural systems with prefabricated solid wood systems.
Hines has embraced mass timber as its preferred materal with the real estate giant looking to achieve net-zero operational carbon in their building portfolio by 2040.
To date, Hines has 26 T3 assets in various stages of development across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Spain including:
- T3 Bayside in Toronto
- T3 FAT Village in Fort Lauderdale
- T3 RiNo in Denver
- T3 West Midtown in Atlanta
- T3 North Loop in Minneapolis
- T3 Sterling Road in Toronto
- T3 Diagonal Mar in Barcelona
- T3 Wedgewood Houston in Nashville
- T3 American Tabacco Campus in Durham
In total, Hines used 2,358 cubic meters of cross-laminated timber (CLT) from XLam Australia and an additional 874 cubic meters of glue-laminated timber (GLT) from Australian sustainable hardwood (ASH).
The glue-laminated timber product used on the project is known as MASSLAM, with ASH reporting that the timber used in T3 Collingwood “regrows in the sustainably managed forests every 5 minutes and stores more than 360,000 kg/CO2e in the timber – even after embodied energy is considered.”
Hines Managing Director Simon Nasa emphasised the environmental benefits of the project.
“Our analysis showed the Collingwood tower would have a 40% lower embodied carbon footprint — meaning the greenhouse gas emissions associated with construction — than an equivalent structure made of concrete and steel,” he said.
“Unlike steel and concrete, timber sequesters carbon in its growth phase and retains it, serving as a natural carbon store,” Nasa told the Age last year.
Beyond environmental benefits, the project also aims to boost productivity and wellness.
“Timber is not only 100 per cent renewable, recyclable, and non-toxic, it also has productivity and wellness benefits.”
“T3 Collingwood will feature state-of-the-art connectivity systems, collaborative working spaces, and wellness-inspired amenities,” added Lawler.
In late 2022, the Australian federal government announced a $70 million investment in the T3 Collingwood project.
It is the first in Australia financed under the government’s $300 million program to promote mass timber construction.
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) aims to encourage the take-up of timber construction materials to absorb carbon and reduce the emissions of new buildings.
Finance has also been provided by the Madigan Active Debt Fund, which the Victorian Funds Management Corporation backs.
