Warrender Studio

The modest Warrander Studio represents a new building typology: not only is it New Zealand’s first full cross-laminated timber (CLT) house, but the entire building has been digitally designed and fabricated using building information modelling (BIM) and computer numerical control (CNC) technologies.
The CLT panels are much like enlarged plywood sheets and consist of timber boards glued together in both directions, creating an inherently solid, strong, earthquake-resistant material. The beauty of the system is that the building can be assembled by unskilled labour, meaning that only one quali ed builder is required onsite to oversee construction. The timber panels form the primary structure and have been used throughout the building for the oors, walls, ceilings and roof; and they also provide a cleanly finished timber interior surface. This means the entire building can be made weathertight within days rather than months, as is frequently the case with traditional building methods. The system provides a fully exible design system that can easily be unclipped, disassembled, altered, added to, moved, reconstructed or recycled. (text: Charles walker, Future Islands catalogue, Making Islands).

Location:
Governors Bay, Canterbury

Practice:
Makers of Architecture

Project team:
Ben Sutherland, Jae Warrander, Beth Cameron and Grant Douglas (Makers
of Architecture) in collaboration with First Light Studio and Guy Marriage

Status:
Completed 2014