This project is a demonstration project and has genuine ambitions for providing environmental and cultural sustainability with long term benefits to the community. Maryborough is the centre of the second largest timber growing and manufacturing regions in Australia, and timber is a major generator of employment in the local community. This project sought to ‘walk the walk’ by using the building as a physical display of a commitment to using locally grown, locally manufactured timber.

The project was established as a demonstration project from the outset. The ambition was to create a building that exemplified a commitment to using innovative, sustainable timber construction technologies in a way that clearly sent a message to the local community.

Sustainability initiatives were always a key driver for the project. The use of Mass timber and engineered timber provided significant reductions in embodied carbon in the building, representing 1750 tonnes of Co2 removed from the atmosphere compared with conventional construction.

Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones, Baber Studio