Faster, smarter, cheaper

Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) - which uses several layers of wood, stacked crossways and bonded together - is an efficient and plentiful building product. Photo / Getty Images

Homes, including tower blocks, can now be made off-site with machines that could be operated by one person.

Daryl Patterson of Lend Lease Australia told a building conference last week that Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) - which uses several layers of wood, stacked crossways and bonded together - is an efficient and plentiful building product.

Patterson says if the system were adopted here then there would be little need to import concrete and steel for home construction and New Zealand would have a self-sustaining construction industry that could build homes faster and cheaper.

Patterson investigated CLT after seeing how robotic technology could use the fabricated wood product to make multi-storey buildings.

"We looked at more than 100 options and it kept coming back to timber: easy to construct, sustainable, durable and cost efficient," he says.

"We can now design and manufacture an entire apartment block in a warehouse, from a computer software program and robotic [machinery] operated by one guy."

Patterson points to London's Graphite Apartments as one example.

"This was social and affordable housing where CLT was being used in very economically tight circumstances."

In 2013 Lend Lease used the system to build the Forte, a residential building that is Melbourne's tallest timber structure.

"What we found using CLT was, not only was it faster to build than a conventional building by 30 per cent, we also reduced truck movements to and from the site by 90 per cent."

Patterson says other benefits included a quieter construction site, a smaller construction crew and "significant thermal properties".

"Buyers were not concerned about what the building was built out of. They just wanted a nice, modern home."

• Tall Wood is using CLT at The Grounds, Hobsonville Point.