In this issue...

The owners wanted a sensitive, delicate fusion of natural and refined materials that would nestle into the tree-clad coastal environment, and they also got the winner of the best renovation category in the 2008 Australian Timber Design Awards.

There is an intriguing paradox about the New Zealand Department of Conservation’s (DoC) award-winning new Kauaeranga Visitor Centre at the major entrance to Coromandel Forest Park. Its most impressive feature celebrates a device that enabled the forest 
to be commercially logged in the first place.

In the rolling green landscape of Victoria’s ‘Spa Country’ about an hour’s drive north of Melbourne, the Sheep House adopts an alternative reading of the 
Australian landscape.

The best community and cultural building in the 2008 NZIA Resene New Zealand Awards has transformed a previously rough side of the tracks industrial area into a ‘humming’ civic centre for the country’s fifth largest city, west of Auckland.

Two occurrences of incredible good fortune shaped the ultimate design concept for one of the outstanding contemporary timber homes on the shores of the massive Puget Sound in Washington State, USA.

The ‘crowning’ of the central bell tower atop Brisbane’s Gothic-style St John’s Cathedral last year using an intricate hardwood truss configuration marked the final phase of a building project that has spanned two centuries.

Evolution of various certification schemes has largely confused professional specifiers and left consumers as potential bait for propaganda and misinformation.

Recurrent factors have led to an expanding use of timber at particular times: growing demand for building, key technical advances, and a core of practitioners open to achieving the best result with natural materials.

Berrinba Wetlands Park is not a household name, but a hint of its importance is implicit in its ‘mini Kakadu’ status.

There is a timber floor suited to almost every home and renovation, but knowing where to find the correct material and how to properly install and maintain it are sometimes problematic. But there is an answer at hand.

Continuing our series with more helpful advice for designers, specifiers and builders on how to ensure you get the correct wood products to suit your needs.