One of Western Australia’s biggest volume home builders will reveal why it is shifting production toward prefabricated timber frames and trusses at Built Evolution, the state’s dedicated timber and modern methods of construction conference. Taking place at Crown Perth on 16 September, Brad Ridolfi, General Manager – Framing & Truss of Scott Park Group, will deliver a case study titled “Scaling With Prefab” directly after the Housing Industry Association’s market outlook for the state.
Speaking ahead of the conference, organiser Craig Oatway, CEO of Timber Insight, said the move carries the weight of the builder’s parent company: “Scott Park Group are part of the Sumitomo group, which has its roots in the forestry industry in Japan. So they’ve obviously been very pro timber construction methodologies and pro lightweight structures.”
With $49 million in Housing Innovation Fund grants awarded to 15 local manufacturers in May, Oatway said the money changed the arithmetic for the state’s biggest builders. “Scott Park Group had already made a decision to develop their own capability even ahead of this year’s Housing Innovation Fund announcement, where we started to see much more investment in the capacity for timber framing over here,” he said, adding that the company brought across a new general manager to run a manufacturing division of its own, established just this year, so it could vertically integrate timber framing into the supply of its own housing pipeline.
“Everybody in the room is going to be really interested to hear from such a major brand who’s been a significant player in Perth’s home building sector for many, many years,” Oatway said.
“Whoever can work out how to deliver houses faster, there’s a big prize sitting there,” said Kevin Peachey, Head of Built Environment Programs at Forest and Wood Products Australia, who said the sector welcomes the technology transfer: “I think Sumitomo will provide us with some good solutions in the built environment space, and using timber as well, which is the key.”
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Brad Ridolfi, General Manager – Framing & Truss of Scott Park Group, will present “Scaling With Prefab” at Built Evolution this September at Crown Perth. (Photo Credit: Supplied)
Built Evolution tackles the supply chain behind the shift
Scott Park is not moving alone, with Oatway naming Home Group WA among the WA Housing Innovation Fund grant recipients, establishing its own timber framing line, and Select Living Homes moving toward prefabricated repeatable framing for parts of its market. They join established frame and truss operators including Independent Timber Supplies, Colli Frame & Truss, AG Trusses and World Wide Truss & Frames, alongside OFFSITE’s advanced timber panel systems.
Double brick is not disappearing from the offer, Oatway said: “It always will be around in Western Australia, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. But it’s certainly playing a less dominant role.”
The case study runs on the conference’s opening morning, as part of a program that starts with Housing Minister John Carey and covers code changes, carbon, Australian-made mass timber, and energy compliance, with the exhibition floor open all day.
- Tickets for Built Evolution are now on sale. The conference runs on Wednesday 16 September at Crown Perth, from 8.30 am to 5 pm, and closes with the first Australian screening of Our Future: Built by Nature; tickets are available here.
