Next generation timber, plus bushfire safety.

Bushfire Building Forum & Expo

Paarhammer Windows and Doors will be one of the companies featuring specially designed fire-safe products at the Bushfire Building Forum & Expo in Springwood, NSW on 8 September.

The expo brings together leading experts in fire safety and prevention in a bid to help residents of this fire-prone area understand and lower their risks.

Paarhammer’s bushfire-safe timber BAL-FZ windows and BAL-40 products combine architectural beauty with extensively tested fire resistance and provide a brilliantly designed response to this annual danger.

The expo will be held at the Blue Mountains Theatre and Community Hub, Springwood. For more details, visit bmee.org.au or paarhammer.com.au

Next Generation Timber

On Thursday, 13 September the Next Generation Timber Products and Systems Seminar and Workshop will be held in Melbourne. FWPA, in collaboration with the ARC Centre for Forest Value – (University of Tasmania), Tall Timber Hub (University of Queensland), ARC Training Centre for Advanced Manufacturing of Prefabricated Housing (The University of Melbourne) are running the event.

  • Date: Thursday, 13 September
  • Time: 09:00am – 4:00pm
  • Venue: Melbourne Business School/ Lecture Theatre 4
  • Address: 200 Leicester St., Carlton
  • Registration: RSVP by Monday, 10 September. Click here to register. Due to limited seating availability, registrations will be allocated on a first come-first served-basis.

The seminar and workshop topics will revolve around Australia’s R&D capacity to consider future market opportunities, assess risks and threats and address possible solutions.

Hear about the latest research activities from Australian research groups from three states and discuss potential opportunities for collaboration.

Gain an international perspective through the participation of the Swedish industrial graduate school, ProWOOD and Christophe Sigrist, Professor for Timber Engineering and Steel Construction at Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland.

ProWOOD

The organisation aims to support innovation and increase the competitiveness of the Swedish wood industry, with focus on industrial product realisation with a practical application in the wood industry. Product realisation refers to the development and manufacturing of physical products, related services, and covers the entire chain from idea to finished product.

Professor Christophe Sigrist

Professor Sigrist is Professor of Timber and Steel Design at the University of Applied Sciences (BFH) in Biel, Switzerland. He has previously worked at IBOIS, the Institute of Prof. Julius Natterer, as a research fellow in the structural engineering division at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1992, as a structural engineer for the post-tensioning company VSL, belonging to Bouygues today, and head of design in VSL Singapore.

Professor Greg Foliente (University of Melbourne)

Professor Foliente is currently an Enterprise Professor at the Melbourne School of Engineering. For over twenty years, he led and managed a section of CSIRO’s built environment research portfolio, including timber engineering and construction. He has initiated, led or managed major national and international research initiatives related to whole-building performance (including during extreme events), environmental assessment, service-life modelling and reliability-based design.

He has also worked in the USA (Virginia Tech and the University of California at Berkeley), Japan (Building Research Institute) and Germany (Fraunhofer WKI and Technische Universitaet Braunschweig). He was the driving force for, and the inaugural coordinator of, the World Conference for Timber Engineering Coordinating Council (WCTE-CC), responsible for the organisation of this world conference series.

Workshop facilitator: Christine Briggs, FWPA, Non-Executive Director

Christine is currently GM Marketing & Business Development with Timberlink Australia, where she is responsible for market positioning and the development and adoption of the strategic direction for the business.  She has held senior sales and marketing roles with major Australian timber manufacturing businesses such as CSR, Weyerhaeuser and Gunns.

She has also had experience in timber supply chain management and national business management of major retail chain customers such as Bunnings. She also spent some time working and living in the USA, with Weyerhaueser Building Materials during 2003.

Australian Research Groups represented at the workshop

  • ARC Centre for Forest Value – (University of Tasmania)
  • Associate Professor Greg Nolan and Dr Nathan Kotlarewski
  • Tall Timber Hub (University of Queensland)
  • Dr Dilum Fernando and Dr Joe Gattas
  • ARC Training Centre for Advanced Manufacturing of Prefabricated Housing (The University of Melbourne)
  • Professor Priyan Mendis, Professor Greg Foliente and Professor Tuan Ngo