Targeting a 6-Star Green Star rating (v1.3) from the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), the facility includes rooftop solar, low-carbon concrete, and a striking timber structure crafted from Glulam and Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), positioning it as the Port’s most sustainable development to date.

The Port sees this purpose-built distribution and Experience Centre – delivered by PBPL in collaboration with the Electrolux Group, JLL, McNab, Johnstaff, Sparc Architects, and Northrop Consulting Engineers – as a significant milestone in the estate’s expansion and sustainability ambitions.

The new 21,255 square metre facility sits on a 4.22 hectare site and includes warehouse space, a premium Experience Centre, a two-storey office, a repair workshop, a hardstand/truck apron, and car parking. Through PBPL’s embedded energy network within Port West stage 2, Electrolux Group will also have access to 100% renewable power for its operations.

Other sustainability measures include water efficiency and recycling initiatives, which capture rainwater for use in bathrooms and workshop appliance testing, as well as the recycling of water used for fire system testing. Additional elements include a Building Management System (BMS) and an optimised design, which reduced embodied carbon wherever possible.

PBPL CEO Neil Stephens said at the launch earlier this year that “the arrival of the Electrolux Group, to Port West Stage 2 marks the beginning of a new benchmark in sustainability at the Port of Brisbane”.

“Taking direction from Electrolux Group’s sustainability ambitions, the project pushed the boundaries of what sustainable development looks like in an industrial setting. We’re proud of what we’ve been able to deliver on this project, collaborating with our long-standing delivery partners to achieve both design and embodied carbon reduction outcomes that were beyond our expectations”, according to Stephens.

At the opening of the facility, Managing Director Australia & New Zealand for Electrolux Group, Kurt Hegvold, said: “We’re ensuring our Queensland operations continue to provide amazing experiences for our consumers and customers and, importantly, an outstanding workplace for our employees”.

“I extend our gratitude to the Port of Brisbane, JLL and the many partners who enabled us to deliver on this project, a testament to our sustainability commitment for the future.”

The site features an advanced Experience Centre capable of hosting events for up to 150 guests, showcasing Electrolux appliances in action with live cooking demonstrations by leading chefs. An emphasis was placed on employee well-being at the site, which features several outdoor spaces and terraces that capitalise on the unique riverfront setting at Port West.

JLL Project and Development Services (PDS) Industrial Sector Lead, Brian O’Connell, who oversaw the project’s delivery, said ambitions for the 6-star rating played out across the entire build. “From our earliest discussions, Electrolux Group was very clear that they wanted to achieve a maximum Green Star rating,” Mr O’Connell said, placing a firm focus on initiatives such as the procurement and use of products and materials with sustainable credentials.

“The most striking example of this was the Cross-Laminated Timber that was used in the main office and Experience Centre. It stands out as an innovative design element in an industrial setting, and it also highlights Electrolux Group’s leadership in sustainability.”

Port West is home to a growing community of global and national businesses, including Bunnings, Fisher & Paykel, and Steelforce. Stage 2’s strategic location, adjacent to Stage 1 of the estate and just six kilometres from the Port of Brisbane’s terminals, ensures cost-effective first- and last-mile transport with direct access to global trade networks.

The new Port West facility strengthens Electrolux Group’s operational footprint in Queensland, supporting the distribution of products under its well-known brands – including Electrolux, Westinghouse, and AEG – to households across Australia. The site reflects the company’s focus on long-term investment, local employment, and sustainable growth.

Here we provide some very relevant extracts:

1. Kevin Hill and Venturer: Modern age pioneers for timber construction

Mr Kevin Hill and Venturer Timberwork can be regarded as the pioneering advocates for timber buildings in the modern age, in Singapore, regionally, and even globally. He walks the talk. There are dozens of examples of his work—in Glulam, CLT, and MET—in Singaporean buildings.

I have worked with Kevin and his team to ‘spread the word’ about the incredible properties of timber for construction in the tropics. Even contributed personally to number of videos about his projects on the YouTube channel, irreverently entitled the ‘Ministry of Tropical Construction’ projects.

One of his most impressive works has been at Jurong Lake Gardens, involving six timber pavilions for the National Parks Board. This is one of the first projects to draw on the BCA incentive scheme to encourage the use of mass timber to reduce the carbon footprint of embodied carbon in a building.

2. Australia’s Olympic effort to “go green” with buildings

In Australia, the green building movement gained momentum after the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which received worldwide recognition as the ‘Green Games’. With venues and facilities that established new benchmarks in design excellence and best sustainability practices, Australia’s property and construction industry demonstrated that green buildings were achievable and practicable.

This was noted by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), in its book ‘Ten years of Progress: 2002 to 2012’. Brisbane-based architect Mr. David Baggs was the sustainability, eco-materials, and energy consultant for 10 of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Green Games venues. He went on to be praised by GBCA as ‘a renowned sustainability and materials expert’ and became Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects.

3. Singapore gets moving on green buildings

The inaugural World Green Building Day kicked off on 24 September 2009 to focus attention on the huge potential of buildings to reduce greenhouse emission. At the time, according to Mr. Tony Arnel, the Chair of both the World Green Building Council (WGBC) and (GBCA), the potential of the built environment was not being fully utilised.

The Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) was officially established on 28 October 2009 during the first-ever International Green Building Conference and Singapore Green Building Week. It was heralded as “the only non-profit organisation with a concerted private-public sector partnership to achieve a world-class and sustainable built environment” in Singapore.

It was also in 2009 that the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) announced its commitment to make sure 80 percent of Singapore’s buildings had a ‘green mark’ by 2030. The aim was and remains to make the urban landscape a more sustainable environment.

4. How green is my building? Singapore’s Double Helix comes up with solutions.

Beyond advocating and facilitating the use of timber in greening the built environment, Double Helix Tracking Technologies delivers practical solutions to help companies understand their supply chains and communicate their product’s journey from source to construction site and onto the consumer. However, when Double Helix opened up shop in Club Street in 2008, it had no way of knowing what impact it would eventually have, playing such a key role in international collaboration to cut deforestation and illegal logging.

At its laboratory run by Chief Scientific Officer, Mr. Andrew Lowe at the University of Adelaide, Double Helix came up with a unique process to extract DNA from a log, or any piece of wood. In 2013, Double Helix was called on by the United States Forest Service (USFS) to build a DNA profile to match seized logs to the stumps of illegally harvested bigleaf maple trees in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

This was the first time that the US Lacey Act had been applied to a case of domestic illegal logging, and the first case in the world where DNA forensics was used to successfully trace the origin of illegally logged timber.

Taking this further, the Singapore company is now involved in producing and testing a new digital “Due Diligence Management Platform”, co-funded by Innovate UK and Enterprise Singapore, to help tackle deforestation which might be involved in the supply chains of commodities, including timber, pulp, paper, beef, cocoa, palm oil, leather, rubber, and soya.

5. Turning the tables: Focus on forests and furniture

Another Singaporean business enterprise that has been doing an amazing job of emphasising sustainability in all its activities—particularly in the field of furniture—is Roger & Sons.

In 2019, Mr. Ben Gunneberg, then-PEFC International CEO, when launching accreditation for PEFC’s Chain of Custody certification scheme, recognised by the Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC), and managed by Enterprise Singapore, drew attention to The Local Tree Project. This initiative by Roger & Sons, and supported by the National Parks Board, turns discarded logs into fashionable furniture, which is very much aligned with the principles of PEFC’s Trees Outside Forests.

He pointed out at the time that by using already felled trees that have been cut down for urban development instead of importing new raw materials, the project shows that good-quality furniture can be made with not only imported wood but also local waste wood and that local trees can have a useful afterlife.

6. Protiotype design for future buildings promotes whole life carbon.

When I first met Singapore-based New Zealander Mr. Gregory Cornelius, he showed me what he was doing to promote efficiency and train Facility Managers at Singapore Polytechnic. Not long after that, he invited me to be part of his Protiotype Design Future Build project, which aims to address Whole-Life Carbon, or embodied carbon, in buildings and energy efficiency at the same time.

Bringing together the talents and experience of a number of architects and designers, Protiotype came up with a smart and sustainable six storey shophouse design, hypothetically situated in the Geylang district of Singapore. The virtual exhibit “Protiotype 21-S” was live online at the London Design Festival in September 2021.

Mr. Cornelius started his Protiotype Design Science as an open research lab and de facto think-tank to test ideas and serve as a proving ground for concepts with potential for industry adoption, scaling, and commercialisation. In 2017, Protiotype developed a Smart Sustainable Building showcase at Singapore Polytechnic, integrating functioning products and services from technology vendors into the Lab showcase.

7. Leadership in sustainability awards recognise notable people, projects and places.

Attending the SGBC-BCA Leadership in Sustainability Awards 2024 Awards Ceremony at the Orchard Hotel in June 2024 was a reward to appreciate the excellent work of a number of individuals and companies.

I witnessed what was described by SGBC as “a surge of high-quality submissions, highlighting the industry’s heightened commitment to sustainability”. The award winners received their trophies from the evening’s guest-of-honour Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for National Development.

The biennial Awards programme, first held in 2016, honours significant achievements by Professionals, Businesses and Building Projects in the development of a green and sustainable built environment. All were well-deserved winners, but I cannot resist praising the Singapore Land Group. The owners of 42-year-old Singapore Land Tower, chose to modernise the building through an extensive asset enhancement initiative starting in 2021 instead of going for demolition.

For its new sustainability features such as a low emissivity double-glazed curtain wall for the façade and upgrades to the air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation system, the building emerged a winner in the Carbon Performance category of the SGBC-BCA Leadership in Sustainability Awards 2024.

8. Singapore hotels up their sustainability game

In 2022, I decided to do an informal survey for Asian Journeys magazine of six Singapore hotels, which I had become very familiar with since my first visit in 1981 and from living here since 1983. They are: Parkroyal Beach Road, formerly the Plaza; Marriott Tang Plaza, formerly the Dynasty; Parkroyal Collection, formerly Marina Mandarin; Grand Hyatt in Scotts Road; Shangri-La Hotel in Orange Grove Road; Raffles Hotel in Beach Road.

By my count, they had all made progress along the sustainability journey, but one hotel was a standout in more ways than one. The owners of Parkroyal Collection, decided not to demolish the Marina Mandarin, but took it through a major retrofit inside and out, therefore avoiding the production of 51,300 metric tonnes avoiding the production of 51,300 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions from de-construction, which they calculated would be like wiping out 10,000 hectares of forest, an area larger than all of Singapore’s nature reserves combined.

An estimated S$3 million was spent replacing all the windows in the hotel with double-glazed glass, along with a new Atrium skylight to filter natural daylight into the indoor spaces. Together these measures reduced the ambient temperature by 2°C, leading to a 2 percent reduction of energy use, as the air-conditioning and chillers run at a lower fan speed, while maintaining the same ambient temperature.

The hotel also installed 210 rooftop solar panels to generate over 350 kwh of electricity per day, enough to power the hotel’s 13 lifts and emergency lighting, thereby further reducing overall energy consumption.

9. Wood Central media platform for the built environment

Indoor air quality (IAQ) has become a crucial consideration in modern building design as people spend more time indoors, making the air we breathe inside buildings critical to our health.

This was a clear message contained in a report I produced for Wood Central, which included comments from SGBC about what is being done in Singapore to address formaldehyde through an alliance for action in 2022-2023, which culminated in a set of indoor air quality guidelines for the industry.

This was just one outcome from my attendance as Media Partner at the International Built Environment Week (IBEW) and BEX in September 2024, which I covered in ABC Carbon Express Issue 260 and previewed in ABC Carbon Express (Issue 259).

Also with a strong built environment focus was the World Architecture Festival at Marina Bay Sands in the first week of November. I also met up with well-known Queensland architect and educator Mr. Mark Thomson – Director of Eco Effective Solutions – whom I had not seen for many years.

He was quick to tell me his first port of call – even before WAF had started – was to inspect the amazing Mass Engineered Timber (MET) monastery at Bright Hill, which was the work of Mr. Kevin Hill and his team at Venturer Timberwork. As a WAF judge, he pointed out to me that low carbon materials and net-zero buildings were positively impacting many advanced developed markets.  Despite worldwide political changes, reducing greenhouse emissions and addressing the changing climate are still global priorities.

10. Hill resort home with an east-west outlook

My first “green home” was on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia and for its time it was as green as it could possibly be when completed for occupation in December 2000. Built out of rammed earth and Australian timber, it was designed to be cool in summer and conveniently warm in winter.

Besides being very energy-efficient, we collected rainwater for use indoors and out, We also disposed of our waste on site – including sewerage – in an ecofriendly fashion. Designed and built as a large well-equipped family home with four pavilions, it was not long before we decided to make even better use of its three-bedroom self-contained guest house, even before the days of AirBnB.

For the fuller version of this article, go to the SG Green here.

Having lived through the influences of all 12 Chinese (or Lunar) New Year animals more than once while working in Singapore over the past 40+ years, I’m prepared to admit to having a certain amount of knowledge on the subject.

Not that I religiously follow all the signs and predictions of horoscopes and astrology, but we are allowed to pick and choose what appeals to us.

For example, the South China Morning Post states that “we are entering into a year of death and rebirth, a year to make responsible decisions to evolve spiritually, moving away from old ways and habits that no longer serve us well.”

That makes sense to me.

We also learn that the wood snake is “best equipped due to its magnetic resonance to hear the heartbeat of Mother Earth.”

In 2025, the strongest wealth element is Fire, so industries relating to water, wood and fire will thrive, while industry related to the elements of earth and metal may suffer from weak support.

Believe it or not, favourable industries that will benefit from the Wood Snake’s energy in 2025 include banking, tourism, shipping, consulting, fine arts and culture, engineering, healthcare, and food and beverage.

On top of that industries which benefit from “a good sense of (Snake) timing, strategy and focus” include agriculture and construction!

What all this might mean to us humble mortals is that there is no need to exhaust your energy: “Adopt the nature of the Snake with awareness and a greater sense of timing” and be ready to strike when the time is right “to maximise the energy of the year”.

To me, this points to the Year of the Wood Snake being a good time for all of us to focus on forests, to care more about trees, and to teach us to put a greater value on timber and related wood products.

Let’s examine a few topical issues and opportunities:

Forest Fires

Victoria and California have already been hit hard this year by devastating forest fires. We hear about the loss of life and property, but how much do we know about the serious loss of trees? Burnt to a cinder.  It’s worrying that Australia is among the top five countries with the biggest annual average loss of tree cover by fires worldwide from 2001 to 2023. See more from Statista here.

Not much we can do, I suppose, to stop the fires and/or reduce the amount of forest which goes up in flames?

Hang on! The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) says we can do a better job of forest management to reduce tree cover loss from fires: “Most forest fires are started by people, but forest management can help avoid them. In recent years, there has been a stark increase in uncontrolled forest fires, both in frequency and intensity. Persistent hotter and drier weather due to climate change, and other human factors such as land conversion for agriculture and poor forest management are the main drivers behind this increase.”

“Forest management practices that can prevent fires include controlling visitor activities, removing trash, and maintaining buffer zones between public roads”. There’s more from FSC here.

Deforestation

The world loses 5 million hectares of forest to deforestation each year. What activities are driving this? According to Our World in Data, agriculture is the leading driver of deforestation globally. Population growth, expansion of urban areas, and increased food consumption have led to many forests being converted into farms. For Australia, most deforestation is driven by the beef industry, not fires or logging.

In 2024, Greenpeace Australia Pacific renewed its focus on combating deforestation to protect “our unique forests for the future and, in turn, save the lives of millions of vulnerable animals and birds.” It also called on key supermarkets and fast food chains to source only beef without bulldozers.

Read what more Australia is doing to stem the tide of deforestation. Here’s what we had in October last year. And Wood Central, in March 2023, ran my story – A new digital platform is being developed to tackle due diligence on deforestation in UK supply chains.

Restoration

We’ve been impressed with the global impact of Restor –  started by Thomas Crowther a few years back – and the One Million Trees project in Australia and elsewhere.  Here’s an update on the project, which seeks “to restore the habitat lost in the bushfires, as well as provide a buffer zone to protect the park from future disasters. This will not only protect the park and its native species, but also the local community and its agricultural activities”.

In The Forest on ABC TV in December 2024, Crowther, the brilliant ecologist, explained why the work of resort was so important everywhere, and it was so important to go beyond planting new trees to do much more to regenerate and protect existing natural and planted forests.

We also know from the UNDP that:  “Healthy forests play a crucial role in mitigating climate change by acting as carbon sinks, absorbing billions of metric tonnes of CO2 annually. However, they are under threat due to deforestation and degradation. Preserving and restoring forests is essential for achieving the world’s climate goals”.

Urban Heat Island Effect

We need to cool our urban environments, and one ideal way to do this is to ensure that we have enough tree cover to provide shade and absorb the heat from our buildings and roads.

Melbourne, which often experiences heatwaves with temperatures hitting 42 degrees in January, recognizes this and has embarked on tree planting in a big way: “Our goal is to plant 3000 trees in Melbourne every year to increase the resilience of the urban forest and to cool our city by 4°C. Trees and vegetation can cool our cities by providing shade, reflecting sunlight and by releasing moisture into the air through their leaves in a process called transpiration.”

There’s more here.

Other Australian cities need to get on board, not only by planting more trees, but by resisting the temptation to clear trees for urban development.

Valuing our Trees

We have written before about the work of Greehill in Singapore and Europe to measure the value of trees in urban environments and how we can maintain their “healthy longevity.

Greenhill uses “sensitive equipment” to collects data from every tree which comes into its sights. It produces a computerised 3D model – which Greehill calls “a digital tree” – so they can perform health and safety checks, undertake custom measurements, as well as filter trees based on other important criteria. His data collection process can track 50,000 trees a day.

All this is essential to gather and retain climate and ecologically relevant data, including the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) stored by each tree. Or even how a park with lots of trees can cool the adjacent area.

Appreciating the trees around us for all they’re worth. That’s the ultimate answer.

Going beyond that – which we will do our best to cover in future articles – is to value wood and other products harvested from our sustainable and certified forests.

We’re seeing a rise in the use of timber in a productive and sustainable fashion around the world and in Australia.

As it’s now the Year of the Wood Snake, let’s make the most of this time – in an election year, too – to value and promote wood for good in more ways than one.

Let’s hear the heartbeat of Mother Earth.

While I personally attended the three-day event (6-8 November) to get the lowdown, inside and out, of the latest in building design and construction, I also met up with well-known Queensland architect and educator Mark Thomson  – Director of Eco Effective Solutions – who I hadn’t seen for many a year.

As a WAF regular and an awards judge again this year, he was happy to share his thoughts on the event—winners and losers—and also tell me what he thought of some of the green buildings he visited while in the Singapore urban jungle.

He was quick to tell me his first port of call – even before WAF had started – was to inspect the amazing Mass Engineered Timber (MET) monastery at Bright Hill, which was the work of Kevin Hill and his team at Venturer Timberwork and featured in Wood Central.

Besides that, he was happy to share his three key insights from WAF 2024:

• Australian architecture is “punching above its weight” internationally, acknowledging that Australian projects won approximately 15% of the prizes in this year’s WAF awards program. As one of the judges, he should know. Click here for a full list of 2024 award winners. 
• One of the keynote presentations articulated the challenge for architects to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) and warned them not to wait but to dive into the opportunities and benefits from such technologies, which contribute to our rapidly changing society.
• Low-carbon materials and net-zero buildings were positively impacting many advanced developed markets. Despite worldwide political changes, reducing greenhouse emissions and addressing the changing climate are global priorities.

We also discussed as you would expect, seeing I was wearing a Wood Central media hat at the time, the presence or otherwise of wood in the minds and designs of architects the world over.  

Mark felt that among the winning entries at WAF, there was a notable increase in timber use, particularly in building interiors, and seemingly to capture the biophilic benefits of natural material usage.

While timber didn’t make its presence felt so obviously in the displays and presentations at WAF, I did talk to quite a few of the exhibitors and sponsors – like Grohe, Rockwool, Figueras and ORO Editions – to discover where wood crops up.

Grohe, the main WAF sponsor for many years, showed me that despite being known as one of the world’s leading producers of water-efficient bathroom/laundry/toilet fixtures—mostly made from metals and plastic—it does ensure that wood features in the interior designs surrounding its products.

In the very comfortable Grohe lounge at WAF, I interviewed Kah Soon Au, Leader, Brand and Communications for Asia Pacific for LIXIL International – the owner of the Grohe brand – who revealed to me a new product line from the Japanese-owned company.

He told me all about “revia”, which combines plastic waste and wood waste to create a material suitable for a wide range of applications. He explains that this product brings “a new value to plastics”.  Called “revia pave,” it is a paving material for sidewalks, plazas, parks and building exteriors, which has been available in Japan since January last year.

Utilizing plastic and wood waste to create one ton of “revia” – which would otherwise have been incinerated after use – can result in an 82% reduction in CO₂ emissions. The material can also be recycled and/or collected to become a “revia” product. More on “revia” here.

Besides this notable product introduction, I was also pleased to witness Drs Kristof Crolia and Garvin Goepel’s presentation on their amazingly innovative and award-winning bamboo building design.

MemutAR is actually a design research exhibition project featuring an elegant bamboo pavilion nested next to a beautiful little lake at a University Campus in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

The two architects told the assembled audience at the associated World Festival of Interiors 2024 forum that their design demonstrates that the limited global availability of specialised bamboo artisanry can be overcome through “strategic incorporation in the design and construction process of parametric design tools, Augmented Reality (AR) technology, and global distribution networks.”

MemutAR is built from 29 large, treated, golden-brown-coloured Petung Bamboo culms (Dendrocalamus Asper) that twist together to form a tilted hyperbolic paraboloid geometry.

This shape is trimmed by edge beams made from glue-laminated split Petung Halus bamboo.

The tectonic system is turned into a gridshell by anchoring the culms using a cross-directional series of treated, split, black-coloured Petung splits.

The structure is covered by a tailormade, white, translucent, glass fibre-reinforced polymer membrane.

After I met and talked to the two Hong Kong-based “bamboo design doctors,” they gave me further insight into how MemutAR was prefabricated by highly specialised Balinese artisans and reassembled in Taiwan by a standard local contractor.

AR technology was used throughout to holographically guide in-situ actions. This combination of limited local and overseas specialised skills enabled the straightforward construction of a non-standard space and geometry.

MemutAR also shows that the use of high-end bamboo skills, currently concentrated in only a few highly specialised places globally, can be scaled up and exported overseas with ease, thanks to the convenience of prefabricated parts shipped directly to local building contractors.

With this proof of concept in place, the technology can now be applied not only to geometrically-complex feature projects, but also standard buildings, like small houses built at low cost by local communities.

As the Laboratory for Explorative Architecture and Design Ltd, Hong Kong, Drs Crolia and Goepel won the WAF Completed Buildings (Display) prize for 2024. More details on the winning MemutAR design are here.

Another example of how architects can make much better use of bamboo, regarded as the most sustainable material in the world for buildings, reminding me of the story I did for Wood Central: Bamboo Masterpiece: The Grass Growing Fast on Wood and Steel! In September.

Not only because I’m thinking about what I can write about for Wood Central!  I believe in wood and all its qualities – visual, structural, thermal – and perhaps most of all because wood is carbon positive and stores carbon.

In fact, as I noted in my 2009 book “The ABC of Carbon”, the word “carbon”, from the Greek “carbo”, literally means “burnt wood”.

So, if we stop burning wood, it will it retain its “carbon store” qualities for ever, whether in buildings, furniture, products, even books and magazines, as they continue to  made from paper from the trees we love to hug!

I’ve collected a few examples of where wood, trees and timber – in many forms and places – have caught our eyes over the last few weeks:

• On South Golden Beach (NSW), a driftwood find, but too heavy to take away.

• A blooming Poinciana tree in Dave Hickson’s waterside garden at Ocean Shores (NSW)

• The prominent sustainable wood sign in the IKEA store at Logan (QLD), sighted when purchasing a bed base and outdoor furniture – all wood of course – for a new home at Wynnum (QLD)

• At the World Architecture Festival in Singapore, wood featured prominently in presentations, displays and awards, notably in this one on a remarkable bamboo structure.

• Wooden furniture incorporating recycled plastic in this display by Semula in Singapore

• When packing up in Singapore to move to Brisbane, we had to make sure the movers, like Willie here, did a good job to protect our 50 year-old Heart Rimu bed, made to order by a master wood craftsman in Christchurch, New Zealand.  

• A rather severely trimmed tree spotted at Manly (QLD)

• Wood features in all its natural glory in the outdoor lounge of the very trendy Quincy Hotel, Singapore

What more can I say or show except express firmly that wood is “in my heart and in my soul” to adapt one of my favourite Rod Stewart songs from the 1970s.  Like songs like that, wood is here to stay.

Here’s an extract from Ken’s 2009 book “The ABC of Carbon”:

Wood. If one cannot see the wood for the trees, it best illustrates the most important role that trees, timber and wood play in the total carbon and climate conundrum. Wood, after all, is central to carbon. The word carbon, from the Greek carbo, literally means burnt wood. See the Age of Carbon and carbon. From wood comes charcoal – also designed to burn – and if we go even further back in time, we see that wood gave us coal. If it was left where it was found – underground and unburnt – we would obviously not have what the world is getting too much of – emissions from coal-fired power stations. Getting rid of wood, by way of chopping down trees and burning them – as with deforestration and forest fires – is a major contributor of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is a double whammy. The act of burning puts out an overload of greenhouse gases. Once the trees have gone, there’s nothing to act as a sink – to naturally absorb CO2. See burning and firing carbon. Planting trees is seen as welcome contribution to mitigation efforts – to help put things back where they belong – and as a carbon offset plan for individuals, organizations and companies. Sustainable forestry – growing and harvesting timber – can be economically and environmentally beneficial. Making the best use of wood this way – and not burning it in situ – can be a carbon positive. We hear from IPCC, UNFCCC and NAFI that wood – which used correctly in buildings and products – can continue to store carbon. See also ITC forestry, native forests, Tasmania, Treehugger,  tropical deforestation, wood products and wood to good use.

Note: While officially out of print, The ABC of Carbon is often found online as a second-hand book and if you email: Kenhickson@outlook.com   he might be able to tell you how to get hold of a copy, in print or as a pdf. of the complete book.

This is made worse in tropical urban environments, where residents are inclined to be totally enclosed in their homes (and offices), relying on air conditioning to keep cool, adding to their exposure to chemicals and gases.

One major concern affecting IAQ is the presence of formaldehyde, a volatile organic compound (VOC) commonly used in building materials. In August, the Singapore Parliament was told that authorities are “reviewing the use of formaldehyde in products such as furniture and adhesives”.

This followed recent media reports of people here falling ill due to high formaldehyde levels in their furnishings, with Channel News Asia (CNA) reporting that one family paid S$1,000 for treatments to their wooden cabinets and shelves after their young children repeatedly fell sick due to high levels of the chemical.

As the Straits Times reported at the time:

“Often found in resins and glues used in wooden furniture – as well as in composite wood products such as plywood and fibreboard – formaldehyde can cause irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, with long-term exposure linked to certain cancers.”

Earlier in 2024, it was announced that Singapore would ban formaldehyde in paint used for the interiors of buildings from January 2026.

I asked three people I know who are familiar with buildings and glues what they think must be done to address the serious health issues of formaldehyde.

This is from Chethiya Ratnakara – a veteran Mass Timber construction specialist with over 18 years of industry experience who’s led several iconic timber projects in Singapore and globally, including the Jurong Lake Gardens project reported in Wood Central.

He is a regular speaker on MET-related topics, particularly fire compliance, sustainability, and productivity. Previously with Venturer Timberworks, now he is the Managing Director of Versobuild, a Singaporean company that provides services globally in mass timber and hybrid construction.

He is actively working on several projects in the Middle East for star resort developments and regionally on high-rise timber buildings, data centres, and long-span timber roofs using timber.

Chethiya admits that Mass-Engineered Timber (MET), along with Glued-Laminated Timber (GLT) and Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), can sometimes contribute to formaldehyde emissions due to the adhesives used in their production during the timber lamination process. He explains that formaldehyde is a colourless gas with an odour known for its widespread use in adhesives and resins. Both short and long-term exposure to formaldehyde can pose serious health risks such as:

• Short-term exposure can cause irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, as well as headaches and dizziness.
• Long-term exposure has been linked to more severe conditions, including chronic respiratory problems and even certain types of cancer.

Formaldehyde in MET Products

Chehtiya agrees that while MET is valued for its structural strength, sustainability, and aesthetic appeal, the glues and adhesives that bind these wood layers together may contain formaldehyde.

Common types of formaldehyde-based adhesives include urea-formaldehyde and phenol-formaldehyde, which can release harmful emissions into the air. While phenol-formaldehyde generally releases lower levels of formaldehyde over time, urea-formaldehyde is a more concerning source of emissions.

How can we Reduce the Risk?

Fortunately, the industry has made strides in reducing formaldehyde emissions, says Chethiya, who has worked with MET, CLT and GLT for many years:

“Some modern timber manufacturers nowadays use VOC-free and formaldehyde-free PUR adhesives in accordance with European Standards. The adhesives have been tested and classified as accordingly and have been approved for the production of load-bearing timber components. This is a significant milestone to the timber industry and its gaining popularity of using these adhesives to avoid VOC.”

“Many manufacturers now use formaldehyde-free adhesives, such as polyurethane or PVA (polyvinyl acetate), to meet stricter health and environmental standards.”

“Certified low-emission products—including those that comply with EPA TSCA Title VI or CARBregulations—are available to ensure safer indoor environments”.

Chethiya also referred us to KLH – one of the world’s biggest producers of CLT, who had this to say on adhesives:

I also talked to my friend Nicola Greenaway, founding partner and managing director of NIKAU Design Group, an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of working in the design industry, with 20 years of experience working across Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

She has spent three years based in Singapore and Macau, with travel to Las Vegas as a Regional Director specialising in master planning, design, and delivery of integrated resorts, hotels, casinos, gaming floors, F&B, entertainment, and leisure projects.

Taking a broader approach to the business of indoor air quality, Nicola points to recent research in the UK backed by the Design Council, which reveals that thoughtful design is key to making repairability a reality and, therefore, more sustainable for reuse purposes.

Using screws instead of adhesives

She notes that the findings highlighted the importance of international design choices, such as durable materials, using screws instead of adhesives, and providing clear user guides for all projects:

So, Nicola Greenaway, as a building design specialist, clearly advocates doing away with any products, like harmful glues, if they are not conducive to the health of people, buildings or the environment at large.

I also asked James Tan of the Singapore Green Building Council for his take on the dangerous health effects of formaldehyde, noting recent media reports in Singapore and elsewhere.

James oversees partnerships and collaborations, heads corporate communications and leads the delivery of events for the SGBC. He has spent a decade engaging with every type of organisation across the building and construction value chain to advance built environment sustainability goals.

James told me that SGBC did some work to address formaldehyde through an alliance for action in 2022-2023, which culminated in a set of indoor air quality guidelines for the industry. These can be found here:

He also gave me a copy of the full report from the Alliance for Action on Sustainable Space – Industry Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality.

Among other things, it points to the serious issue with formaldehyde:

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an indoor environment with more than 0.1 mg/m3 of formaldehyde is considered toxic and is congruent with the Singapore Standards for indoor air quality (SS554). It is, therefore, essential to ensure that formaldehyde levels are kept to the absolute minimum within our places and spaces.

From my three (or more) sources of information and comment, there’s a very “clear and present danger” with formaldehyde and we are best to get rid of this pollutant, which is not good for the health of our people, buildings, furniture or the planet at large.

Let’s give the last word to Chethiya Ratnakara, the veteran Mass Timber construction specialist, who provides us with this very useful conclusion:   

For those concerned about IAQ when using MET, several steps can be taken:

• Choose formaldehyde-free MET products: Look for certifications ensuring low or zero formaldehyde emissions by using certified PUR adhesives rated in accordance with European Standards.
• Increase ventilation: Proper ventilation systems can help reduce the concentration of formaldehyde and other VOCs indoors.
• Seal surfaces: Applying low-VOC sealants to MET surfaces can reduce the release of formaldehyde.

Chethiya concludes: “While formaldehyde in MET products can affect indoor air quality, advancements in adhesive technology and material certifications are helping to make these products safer for occupants.”

“Ensuring the use of low-emission materials and implementing good ventilation practices can significantly reduce the risks posed by formaldehyde and improve the overall indoor air environment. There are also solutions and surface applications that can be done onsite after installation to reduce the impact of VOC levels”.

“Jurong Lake Gardens completed today (Sunday, 8 September). Great to be part of this project, one that straddled Covid with the consequence of delay and disruption, but one that ultimately prevailed,” says Mr Hill.

Venturer Timberwork delivered several beautiful MET buildings designed to be modern and functional yet sympathetic to several of the original structures from the 1970s.

I was honoured to play a role as reporter and interviewer in the early stages of building the six MET pavilions in 2021—in the middle of pandemic lockdowns and restrictions—which included going to the muddy construction site, complete with hardhat and heavy boots.   

This resulted in at least one video produced for the Ministry of Tropical Construction on YouTube:

As Malaysian newspaper The Star reports:

Over at the Japanese Garden, the large Guesthouse, also constructed from MET, taps natural air circulation to stay cool.

Kevin Hill continues to be enthusiastic about MET for tropical locations and says since Jurong Lake Gardens was built, good progress has been made across the sector:

“Less transport, more regional employment, and a higher value placed on regionally harvested verified materials that work harmoniously with more traditional approaches, like mass timber bending frames with bracing cassettes.”

“We are grateful that more brands are facilitating our early participation in scheme design, leading to the creation of balanced, optimised specifications long before projects are tendered out.”

He also believes that the wider uptake of wood as a climate response needs input from many sources both near and far, ideally all verified with the same independent audit process that can equally present important climate metrics.

He points out that Venturer intends to audit the net biogenic stored carbon in accordance with ISO 14064 GHG standards, which is estimated to be around 1 500 tonnes CO2e or an equivalent offset of the power consumption of about 600 local households.

By adopting DoubleHelix’s Wood Product Protocol, Kevin Hill believes one can preserve a digital twin or tokenise (using a smart contract) of all the components, including compliance data for ‘reuse as intended’ at the structure’s end of life.

“All in all, bringing more value by adding measured climate impact mitigation, not just another pretty narrative”, he quips.

It is good to see that the National Parks Board acknowledges the beneficial role MET plays on this site:

The Gardens will showcase a new method of construction using Mass Engineered Timber (MET), which is more sustainable and productive. MET comprises engineered wood products with improved structural integrity. The building components are prefabricated off-site and assembled on-site, thus reducing construction time and improving productivity.

Its high strength-to-weight ratio makes it easier to handle than steel and concrete, allowing it to be installed more easily in a shorter amount of time. MET buildings can be built four times faster than concrete buildings, with less noise, clutter, and waste.

MET can also help save on material use as it can be left exposed without the need to apply finishing material.

The Guesthouse will be built in GLULAM (a type of MET), which has the unique capability of spanning large distances without the need for supporting columns.

Other buildings built using MET include the Rainforest Pavilion in Lakeside Garden and the Water Lily Pavilion in the Japanese Garden.

To conclude this piece for Wood Central, I cannot help but draw on an article I wrote for Wood in Architecture at the time of the big project in Jurong Lake Gardens: Timber buildings go beyond Net Zero to achieve Whole Life Carbon status.

When I visited a building site in Singapore recently to inspect six timber pavilions being constructed for the local National Parks Board, Kevin Hill of Venturer Timberwork—undisputedly the most experienced MET builder in Asia—didn’t hesitate to confirm that his MET load arrived on site from Austria and Finland and is “carbon negative.”

Let’s be clear: You’re carbon negative if the amount of CO₂ emissions you remove from the atmosphere is bigger than the amount of CO₂ emissions you put into the atmosphere. Your impact is positive, meaning you’re actively doing something to better the climate.

Why Kevin Hill is convinced that MET is the best construction material:  

• The carbon contained in the wood is safely retained in the building itself,
• The timber is responsibly harvested from sustainably managed forests certified by PEFC, for example, and there’s no deforestation or other controversial sourcing involved,
• Even the carbon footprint in freighting the ideal timber from Europe to Asia is much less than the footprint of the heavier imported steel or concrete used for most buildings in Singapore.

I reported a month ago on what Andrew Dixon and investor friends have created on two relatively remote Indonesian islands, based on meeting and interviewing the man himself. On video as well:

But that was before I’d been there to see for myself…

Here, I focus on what I call a true ‘bamboo masterpiece’ on Cempedak Island. The concept, design, construction, and the first-hand experience of touching, feeling, and being inside these amazing structures made from the fast-growing sustainable tropical “grass,” which performs as well as wood and steel as a building material. 

The Bamboo Breathes     

Yes, I discovered that bamboo breathes! Once inside my Cempedak villa, I quickly accepted that bamboo is the most natural material to use in the structure, walls, panels, flooring, and even some of the furniture. You’ll find recycled teak in places and rubber wood on the outside deck.

As I report on this ‘visitor experience,’ I cannot help but describe it as a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively. As you admire, see and smell the unique characteristics of the world’s most sustainable building material, you can also take in the cooling sea breezes, as there are few obvious walls and doors here to stop its flow.    

Does it worry you there’s no air conditioning? The instant you arrive at your very open-to-the-elements villa you realise how the natural air flow – and the impressive ceiling fans – provides more than enough cooling.

Architect Specialised in Hotel Design

Back in 2013, Andrew Dixon and fellow Cempedak owners/developers retained Miles Humphreys, the New Zealand architect based in Bali, who specialised in designing hotels. He might not have had any direct experience working with bamboo at that stage, but he had some great contacts, including two young designers who he hired as they had worked exclusively with the sustainable building material. Together, they worked on the masterplan for the site and the conceptual drawings.

Miles, with his young Balinese architects, Chiko Wirahadi and Ketut Indra Saputra, then converted the conceptual drawings into ‘makets’ – bamboo models that were used onsite to build the structures.  

Here is how a ‘maket’ is made:

Andrew Dixon explains: “Usually, we would go through a few iterations of these until we agreed on a final version. Using that model—there are no paper floor plans on site—the team then built a full-scale’ mock-up’. After building this, we made a few variations, which then became the version that we used for building all 20 villas.”   

Collaborative teamwork

Miles, the architect and Andrew, the resort developer, called in a structural engineer who specialised in bamboo structures. While it all seemed quite complicated at first, it worked surprisingly well and became an excellent example of collaborative team-work.  

Andrew is quick to draw to attention to the dedication and direction of the architectural team, led by Miles, who was particularly helpful to work with. He also praised the Balinese architect called Chiko, who worked on a few other structures, but most notably the very distinctive Dodo Bar. Built from black bamboo and black ijuk (arenga pinnata) palm fibre, it resembles a witches’ hat.

The architectural team introduced the Cempedak owners to a number of key contacts who played critical roles in getting the bamboo structures built, Andrew tells me, with one of the most important being Pak Indra, who led the construction team. He brought in a wealth of knowledge of bamboo and bamboo construction techniques.

Also around this time, an energetic English carpenter, Piers Berry, joined the team as Project Manager.

Not all Plain Sailing

In early 2015, building began in earnest with delivery by barge of the first major delivery of bamboo. It was not all plain sailing, though, Andrew recounts:  

By early 2017, 11 villas had been completed together with the restaurant, boathouse and bar. At the peak of construction, around 200 people were employed on site. In March 2017, Cempedak Island resort opened to its first guests.

We are reminded by Andrew and his astute staff, who happily take guests on what they call as ‘a bamboo building tour’, that there are around 1000 different species of bamboo. In building Cempedak, 10 different species of bamboo were used.

Aja – acting as the golf buggy driver – transported us everywhere on the island, even showing us the resort’s very own bamboo garden to see ‘how the various grasses grow’. He also took us to us the very well-equipped carpentry store, alongside a stack of massively tall and sturdy bamboo beams, ready if needed for replacement or support for any of the resort structures.  

We learn that the strongest and most plentiful bamboo suitable for construction grows – and was sourced for this project – from nearby Sumatra, where you’ll find 75 species, 34 of which are endemic to the province.

No one farms bamboo in Sumatra on the scale that was required. Andrew explains: “We needed to establish a supply chain from selection through to transport and treatment of the bamboo. This was a huge logistical challenge”.

The primary species of bamboo used for the uprights is locally known as Petung. These large structural uprights are used extensively on Cempedak, typically with a diameter of around 20cm and with greater tensile strength than steel.

As strong as steel

Perhaps one of the most extraordinary features of the resort construction, which is not appreciated until you see it for yourself, is the bathroom floor on the second level of each villa. It is a large slab of concrete and stone – that weighs nearly two tonnes – supported by bamboo beams alone. There are no steel supports.

You are also reminded that bamboo is, in fact, a grass and one of its key benefits is that you do not kill the plant when you cut it down. It simply sends up a new shoot. Bamboo is also a fast grower with some species able to grow up to nearly 1m in a day.

The large bamboo pieces used in this project were at least four years old at the time and around 14m long. These unique properties make bamboo one of the most sustainable building materials in the world, Andrew likes to remind us.

Treatment for bamboo

One of the weaknesses of bamboo is that it does not like to get wet or get too much direct sun exposure. It likes to have an ‘umbrella’ to keep the rain off and boots to keep its feet off the ground. For this reason, you will notice that the uprights are typically supported on stone footings.

Another weakness is that there a number of insects who like to eat its fibrous structure. The most common of these insects is the ‘post powder beetle’ which bores into the upright to lays its eggs. The best treatment for bamboo is to soak the bamboo in a solution of borax, a naturally occurring mineral and not dangerous for humans.

Explaining different techniques

One of the things that makes bamboo special is the curved shapes that can be created with the material. To form these shapes, bamboo is split and then rebound together to form long lengths that are then reformed and tied to the uprights to get the wonderful curves you see on all of our buildings. These are called Lidi. The ridge line on your villa is formed with a single piece of this measuring 43m and weighing approximately 500 kg.

About 90 pieces of the large petung bamboo, 500 pieces of the smaller rafter bamboo, and 500 metres of lidi were used in each villa. Approximately 50m2 of bamboo was used for flooring and 2800 strips of alang alang (atap or thatch) made up the roofing.

The flooring is a split bamboo 5cm wide, nestled together, then pressed and pinned with long bamboo pegs. These are then secured to the flooring members using bamboo pegs.

Because bamboo does not like to get wet, a recycled rubber wood was used for any outdoor flooring or decking. This material if made from veneer taken from rubber trees that have passed their useful life.

In keeping with trying to minimise any man-made materials, most of the furniture was created using recycled teak, commissioned by the interior designers. But you will notice that some items of furniture – particularly the distinctive round lounge coffee table – makes good use of bamboo in a novel fashion.  

Drinking in the Dodo Bar

Perhaps one of the most unique buildings on the Cempedak Island is the Dodo bar. Architect/designer Chiko was inspired by a conical shaped shell that is found on the beach and a desire to use the naturally black bamboo species that is found on his home town of Bali.

In the bar, is a taxidermist’s interpretation of what a Dodo would have looked like. There are no intact original Dodo’s in the world only skeletons. Andrew recalls that the last Dodo skeleton to sell fetched $1million at auction: “A little out of our budget!”

The transition from building to operations

Asked what happened to the project team, the master developer/owner Andrew Dixon proudly tells me that many of the key ‘bamboo builders’ were offered jobs after Cempedak was completed and they continue to work on the island.  Some of them have now been working on the island for seven years or more.

To help staff transition to the operational side of the resort, a teacher was hired and sent to Cempedak once a week to give English and first aid lessons to the project staff. The original Balinese construction team were also generous in teaching them many of the construction techniques used in the build. This helped give them confidence, Andrew insists, and they are now important members of the staffing team who know the island better than anyone.

In undertaking this ‘bamboo building tour’, it reminded me to the first big bamboo construction I visited years ago – The Green School in Bali way back in 2010. I also referred to Bamboo as the Ultimate Sustainable Material and the article by Paul Miles in the UK Financial Times I 2007.

Here’s a link to the World Economic Forum’s article on sustainable green buildings, which included Bali’s Green School. Read more about the community-based effort that aims to improve Indonesia’s ability to use and manage bamboo sustainably, called 1000 Bamboo Villages, which started in 2015.

• Photo credits: Cempadek Private Island and M Hickson.

This whole project has been masterminded by Australian Andrew Dixon, a former investment banker who has, in his words, become “an accidental hotelier”.

He doesn’t just talk about sustainable development and responsible tourism but shows by example what can be done to create two tropical island resorts – Nikoi and Cempadak – alongside the larger Bintan Island, Riau, Indonesia.

It was Andrew Dixon who insisted from the start that locally available materials – bamboo, driftwood, rubber wood and recycled teak – would be used in the construction and furnishing for the resorts.

See my video interview with Andrew after a walk in the park in Singapore:

It’s clear that Andrew has set out from the start to make this an exceptionally sustainability-managed resort in every way possible.

Locally sourced timber is by far the most impressive feature of these resorts, but he’s gone beyond the obvious to do so much more by:

• Conserving as much of this nature-abundant enclave of rainforest, beaches, and coral reefs as is physically possible, creating a community-friendly resort, and catering to a limited number of guests at any time.
• Insisting that, by far, the majority of the energy the resorts need comes from installed solar PV panels.
• Designing and constructing the buildings to allow sea breezes and ceiling fans to keep guests cool and comfortable without needing energy-hogging air conditioning.
• Collecting rainwater and groundwater to meet all the needs of guests and staff.
• Producing practically all the food required for the resort’s kitchens from its own farm on main Bintan Island or getting seafood from local fishermen and women.

For Andrew, the biggest bug bear is getting people to and from the island resorts by road and sea transport. This is the most difficult area to manage from an energy and cost standpoint. But he’s always on the lookout for ways to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.  

He is seriously looking at a small tailor-made electric battery powered flying boat or even using bio-diesel made from Used Cooking Oil as an alternative to the fossil fuelled diesel used by most vessels.    

He also sees it as a key part of his mission is to contribute to the community in other positive ways. So he was instrumental in establishing The Island Foundation in 2010 to focus exclusively on improving educational opportunities for children living in the Bintan Regency, Riau Islands, through learning centres, local teacher training and community engagement.

Ever ready to share his experience, he met recently with Kevin Phun, who runs the Centre for Responsible Tourism Singapore (CRTS), so others can learn from what Nikoi and Cempedak have achieved through sustainable resort development and management.

More than that, Andrew has also been a very active member of The Long Run organisation, which has now grown to become one of the world’s largest nature-based tourism business groups, with over 60 members worldwide.

Not only is he showing what can be done, he’s going out of his way to encourage other resorts in Asia Pacific to come up to The Long Run standard.  

But according to its design consultant, Singapore-based architect Jason Pomeroy, it involves much more than cross-laminated timber (CLT), as he describes it as a “wintergarden.”

It’s become an affordable, eco-centric housing and mixed-use development, also described as  “an environmentally friendly and socially inclusive public housing project”.

Way back in pre-pandemic days, 2019, Pomeroy Studios announced its involvement in this unique redevelopment project, designed to have a variety of apartment types available for lease to promote inter-generational bonding.

The seven-storey residential block comprise 54 apartments, while the 15-storey residential block has 67, with sizes ranging from studios to four-room flats.

While the first sod of the redevelopment took place in 2020 – it was more of a tree-planting event to show its green emphasis – the project really started coming alive during 2023. That’s when various tenants – retailers and residents – started moving in. 

Much more is on the cards this year, 2024, when more shops and homes are being established.

The developer AB Gavlegårdarna says it won’t be until 2026 when it expects it to be in its finished state:

The candy factory is now a car-free and lively district, with green walking paths and many natural meeting places. Here, modern and sustainable houses share blocks with historic factory buildings. The commercial activities contribute to creating a new and unique part of Gävle. Sales hall, grocery store, outdoor dining, market square, office, Bed & Breakfast, preschool and school – here there is life and movement for a large part of the day.

Prof Pomeroy, who teaches classes on the sustainable built environment at the University of Cambridge, University of Nottingham, James Cook University Singapore and King Saud University, says the glazed atrium of the seven-storey block and orangery atop the 15-storey building are also designated as recreational spaces for residents to meet and socialise with one another.

Echoing the project’s strong emphasis on CLT, Pomeroy confesses to his love of timber. “For centuries it’s been an important part of the construction process and only now are we really enjoying its resurgence as a means of reducing our carbon footprint.”

“I’m delighted that we were given the opportunity to change the cultural perception of what homes should be like in the re-embrace of this warm, sustainable material”, he says.

This was just one of the international projects we discussed when I interviewed Jason Pomeroy after the launch of his latest book “Hardware Software Heartware: Digital Twinning for more Sustainable Built Environments”.  

I did wonder whether by emphasising the use of “the digital twin” can the architect still make sure he maintains his/her creative role and that the human element is maintained. Isn’t there a danger that technology and algorithms could interfere with the design process?

Pomeroy insists that the human element is certainly emphasised in his book.

“It’s particularly framed as the ‘heartware’ component. I also express my personal fears of digital technology ‘running rampant’ and the importance of finding a balance between the analogue and digital”.

As an architect at heart, he still enjoys holding a pen and sketching an idea – “let’s call this the heartware” – however, he admits there will be times where the ‘software’ yields ideas that the architect may not have been able to comprehend spatially.

“The ability to thus unlock ‘prompts’ for new thinking is exciting, and it is this human touch that can still be maintained to provide a greater sense of authenticity and hopefully people-centric”.

That’s not the final word from this enterprising and architect. And his very green Swedish CLT project is but one example of his innovative approach to sustainable built environments.