Day by day, week by week, thousands of mountain bikers and walkers already make the most of the country’s forests for outdoor adventure. But this added value to our downtime has never been assessed in monetary terms.

Now, the recreational assets of Whakarewarewa Forest near Rotorua have been calculated at five times the forest’s annual timber revenue – for mountain biking alone. This result is consistent with other similar studies in the developed world showing that non-market values are higher than tangible forests products such as logs, wood and pulp.

The findings come from a study by Crown Research Institute Scion based on a survey of 709 forest users. The study provides an economic measure of the community good that forests provide – free of charge – compared with the value of the forest for timber.

Researchers employed an economic valuation tool called ‘travel cost method’ to calculate the forest’s annual recreational value in simple terms by multiplying the estimated average value per visit by the number of visits each year.

The formula shows that Whakarewarewa Forest has a median recreational value of $5.2 million for walking and $10.2 million for mountain biking per year.

Jane Arnott, chief executive of NZ Wood, says New Zealand forests currently add $4.6 billion to export revenues, but just as importantly at the ground level, they provide superb facilities for recreational joys – often at no extra charge to the user.

“Without plantation forests and their helpful owners and managers many New Zealanders would have to go without their recreational hobby of choice, from mountain biking to horse riding or walking,” she said.

“Forests provide a sheltered, robust environment that’s ideal for year-round family adventure.

“And what’s really great about our plantation forests is that while the majority are owned offshore, and represent multi-million dollar pension funds, absolutely everyone can enjoy them,” Ms Arnott said.

In New Zealand, 26.2 million days are spent on recreation each year, with forest activities accounting for a major proportion.
Of those, mountain biking is growing fast.
According to Statistics NZ, there has been a 93 per cent increase in the number of bikes imported, compared with 10 years ago. And the number of cyclists grew by 81 per cent between 2000 and 2008.
New Zealand forests contain some of the ‘world’s most outstanding’ bike tracks, according to Bike New Zealand, and seen by the masses of riders heading for well-worn tracks every weekend at Auckland’s Woodhill Forest, Whakarewarewa Forest, or Eskdale Mountain Bike Park in Napier.
This trend is likely to continue with the total number of forest visitors expected to climb one per cent per year to 2014.

This research shows that forests are even more of an investment into the future with the potential to provide significant recreational value on top of their timber value.

The benefits of these resources can only continue to grow.

NZ Wood – the promotional arm of the Wood Council of New Zealand – is launching a campaign to encourage the use of structural timber in multi-storey and high-rise buildings for the city’s reconstruction.

NZ Wood Chief executive Jane Arnott says the organisation wants to ensure Cantabrians get the best advice for the rebuild and that they recognise the resilience of timber.

“Architects and engineers around the world are using wood to create buildings that combine safety with sustainability and style,” she said.

“We want to encourage and inform, and we can provide compelling evidence as to why timber and engineered timber designed with structural safety in mind offer advantages from safety and cost-effectiveness to speed of construction…ideal criteria for the building material of choice in Canterbury.”

The campaign gets underway today, November 2, with a series of billboards across the city promoting wood, “the green answer to the red zone”.
NZ Wood will also have a stand at the Canterbury A & P Show to provide information about the advantages of manufactured timber, including seismic damage avoidance engineering, fire performance, noise performance, thermal performance and comfort and sustainability.

International wood construction experts highlighted the advantages of new forms of manufactured timber for creating strong, earthquake-resistant buildings during a recent visit to Christchurch.

English architect Andrew Waugh, who designed the world’s tallest wooden residential building, the nine-storey Stadhaus apartment tower near London, said wood was the building material for the 21st century.

He said New Zealand had the raw materials and could take advantage of this technology.

Italian engineer Paolo Lavisci, was involved in the design for permanent accommodation for 20,000 people who lost their homes after the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake.

He said people who have been through such disasters prefer timber, and since the rebuild the use of wood in construction had taken off in Italy.

Lavisci said wood, with its high strength-to-weight ratio and flexibility, had many advantages as an earthquake-resistant construction material.

The experts were guest speakers at the NZ Wood national seminar series – Reaching New Heights with Wood – in September.

NZ Wood will be at the Canterbury A & P show, 9, 10, 11 November at Canterbury Agricultural Park.

About NZ Wood

NZ Wood is a pan-industry promotional strategy designed to inform, educate and motivate all people around the benefits of wood, and particularly engineered timber in commercial construction, and the overall benefits of our plantation forests in terms of economic, social and environmental gain.

The showcase Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Arts & Media building scooped two major awards in the NZ Wood Timber Design Awards announced on Tuesday – commercial engineering and commercial architectural excellence.

The three-storey, seismically-protected timber structure was entirely built from locally grown and fabricated laminated veneer lumber, designed by Nelson-based architects Irving Smith Jack and engineering consultancy Aurecon.

It was described by the judges as “a beautifully integrated design solution where the design process has fully embraced structural timber innovation to create a landmark building for New Zealand”.

The initial design proposal for the NMIT building won a nationwide government competition for a ground-breaking timber structure to demonstrate and stimulate structural timber use.

The design includes world first ‘damage avoidance’ seismic engineering incorporating post-tensioned timber shear walls.
The interior of Wellington Airport’s new international terminal – “the Rock” – won the interior fit-out award with the judges commenting on its “visually arresting interior” which resulted in “an iconic, engaging series of spaces”.

The terminal was designed by Studio Pacific Architecture in association with Warren and Mahoney.

Other main award winners were:

• Residential Architectural Excellence: Little Oneroa House, Waiheke Island, by Cantilever Architects.

• Sustainability: MOTAT Aviation Display Hall, by Studio Pacific Architecture and Holmes Consulting Group.

• Cladding Building Envelope: Rotoroa Island Exhibition Centre, Pearson & Associates Architects.

The People’s Choice award went to Kanuka Engineered Wood Products Ltd and Structural Concepts Ltd for Red Stag Timber’s Reman building in Rotorua.

Additional Notes

Judges

David Brown has operated his own residential building business for over 30 years, specialising mainly in major renovation work.  He is also a veteran judge, having participated in the judging for the Timber Design Awards for the last seven years.

• Auckland Region Director Certified Builders Association

• Member Judging Panel, Department of Building and Housing Starter Home Design Competition

Ross Davison is a civil/structural consulting engineer who has worked on industrial, commercial, educational, rural/lifestyle and residential wood design projects and is the current President of the Timber Design Society.

• Civil/structural consulting engineer Law Sue Davison Ltd

• President NZ Timber Design Society

Elvon Young operates in a cross disciplinary environment encompassing art, academia and professional practice. He is a specialist in research, development and application of digital design methodologies to the architectural design process.

• MArtDes(Hons) BArch(Hons) BAS BCom

• Head of Department (Spatial Design) – AUT University

• Director, Young + Richards (Architecture/Interiors/Products/Research)

Sponsors

Carter Holt Harvey Woodproducts
NZ Wood

Timber Design Society
Resene
Intergrain
Kop-Coat New Zealand
Timberbond
Timber + Design International
American Hardwood Export Council

The NZIER Report highlights that in the year to March 2011, the combined exports of forestry and wood-related products earned New Zealand $4.6 billion. Over the same period the sectors direct contribution to GDP was $4 billion.

With a ‘wall of wood’ available to harvest early next decade there is also the potential for  exports to increase by over staggering 40% over the next 20 years.

According to Doug Ducker, Chairman of Woodco “the forest  and wood value chain is on a growth trajectory and we need to develop effective strategies to ensure optimal economic gains are realised both locally and offshore”.

Mr Ducker added:

“If we look at the domestic market, we need to be mindful that New Zealanders have options in terms of the construction materials they select. If we get our supply chain right, those involved in architecture, engineering and property development represent some of the key influencers in terms of how the sector increases its contribution to GDP”.

“With innovation that reflected government policy to apply science and technology, New Zealand is now at the cutting edge of breakthroughs in engineering excellence and the application of engineered timber.  On this basis the forest and wood sector offers the potential to lift its manufacturing but this will not happen without key influencers being enabled to specify such products.”

In a recent series of Timber Design Seminars coordinated by NZ Wood, international architects highlighted the benefits of timber particularly in commercial construction and in post earthquake Italy.  Research carried out amongst the architects and engineers who attended the events highlighted the lack of knowledge and outdated Standards as two key drawbacks that limited the uptake of engineered timber in New Zealand.

NZ Wood’s Timber Design Advisory Centre has been established to overcome the first hurdle by helping improve local knowledge of timber options particularly with regard to engineered timber. There remains however an immediate need to update building standards so they are relevant to the materials that are available today and this is a critical issue.

NZIER Report: Key Findings

Export Revenue

In the year to March 2011, the combined exports of forestry and wood related products earned New Zealand $4.6 billion putting these combined exports in third ranking in terms of export value.

Forestry and wood-related products accounted for 13.3% of New Zealand’s total goods exports.

Over the past 5 years the real value of forestry primary products exports (largely logs) have grown by an average rate of 18.6% per year.  This is faster than any other grouping.

Processed wood exports have grown by an average of 3.5% over the past 5 years.

Strong Direct Contribution to GDP

The sector’s GDP was $4 billion in the year to March 2011 – over two and a half times bigger than the contribution of the mining sector, seven times larger than the textiles and clothing sector and over twice as big as the accommodation, restaurants and bars sector.

The forestry and logging sector contributed $1.77 billion to New Zealand’s real GDP in the year to March 2011.  It has grown by an average of 2.2% over the past decade. In the year to March 2011, its GDP grew by 12.2%

The wood processing sector contributed a further $2.3 billion and has grown at an average rate of 0.3% over the past decade.

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Background re Standards

Standards are agreed specifications for products, processes, services, or performance.

New Zealand Standards are developed by expert committees using a consensus-based process that facilitates public input.

New Zealand Standards are used by a diverse range of organisations to enhance their products and services, improve safety and quality, meet industry best practice, and support trade into existing and new markets.

Standards New Zealand is New Zealand’s leading developer of standards and standards-based solutions.

Standards New Zealand is the operating arm of the Standards Council, an autonomous Crown entity operating under the Standards Act 1988.  The Standards Council, an appointed body with representatives from a wide range of community sectors, is the governing body for Standards New Zealand.

For more information please contact:

Doug Ducker Chairman Woodco 06 831 0100

Lees Seymour Chair      NZ Wood 0274 882 409

Jane Arnott     CEO       NZ Wood 021 807 002

The domestic economic recovery now slowly getting underway is starting to benefit the building sector. Residential building has been the worst affected part of the industry, with the number of new dwelling consents lodged in the year ended July 2011 the lowest for any 12 consecutive months on record, despite consent numbers now trending up since February. Record low interest rates have encouraged households to borrow more and perhaps even buy more homes, but this has yet to translate into many new builds. Cautious spending, low migration, and increased household size also reduced demand.

The non-residential market has fared only slightly better. A decline in public investment, primarily due to the completion of Rugby World Cup building projects and reduced office building, has reduced demand and the private market appears unready to make up for it at this time.

However, the strong New Zealand dollar has helped limit rising building costs even as international commodity prices remain elevated. Anticipated rises in interest rates will help keep the New Zealand dollar strong and dampen inflation, but they could also hinder recovery in the building sector.

Difficult as things are at the moment, there is genuine reason for medium-term optimism. The combination of the Canterbury rebuild and the launch of the leaky homes Financial Assistance Package (FAP) represents an unprecedented level of pending building work. Building sector recoveries generally start in the residential sector before spreading to the non-residential sector, and the FAP and Canterbury earthquake recovery work mean this recovery will not be any different. For now, most builders will need to continue focusing on keeping their internal capability as high as can be managed in preparation for the work that is on the horizon.

Read the full report at the DBH website

National Gold Reserve finalists have been announced in the Registered Master Builders PlaceMakers 2011 House of the Year and RMB Commercial Project Awards.

The Gold Reserve medal winners represent the top entrants in this year’s competition, with finalists selected from 14 regional competitions held throughout New Zealand during June, July and August.

The finalists will now vie for New Zealand’s top three building honours – PlaceMakers Supreme Awards for the House of the Year and Renovation of the Year; and the RMB Commercial Project of the Year.

Registered Master Builders Federation Chief Executive Warwick Quinn says this year’s competition has shown superb levels of building excellence from around New Zealand.

“The quality of workmanship seen throughout the country is truly outstanding, builders are taking pride in their work and this is reflected in the quality of the finalists,” he says.

“Exceptional quality is vital right across the building industry, not just in competitions like ours, and with the Christchurch rebuild and leaky home remediation there is no room for quick fixes that won’t stand the test of time.”

Principal sponsor John Beveridge, Chief Executive of PlaceMakers, says he is proud to support the competition in its 21st year.

“I would like to congratulate all of the Gold Reserve finalists despite some very tough times in the building and construction industry over the past few years.

“Each of you symbolise the very best in standards of building and craftsmanship. You represent the pinnacle of building excellence for this industry and we are proud to celebrate with you your commitment to showcase such talent.”

The finalists’ projects will now be re-judged over the next few months, before the National Category Winners and Supreme Award winners are announced at a gala dinner in Auckland on Saturday 19 November.

The Awards are made possible through the support of principal sponsor PlaceMakers and supporting sponsors James Hardie, Gib Living®, Pink® Batts® Ultra® (Tasman Insulation), Nulook, and the Department of Building and Housing.

Image Credit: Fernando Gomulya

Architects: TWS & Partners
Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
Project Year: 2010
Project Area: 300 sqm
Photographs: Fernando Gomulya

Twisting out something from the usual line is taken in order to create different perception or to enrich some more quality. This happens to a house that we name it as The Distort House.

It is located in the south of Jakarta which is still dominated by lush, tropical village forest in the neighborhood. In the front of the site itself lays a public park with some old big tropical trees. In response to those advantages, the house’s mass outline is shifted close to the back perimeter line of the site, and then twisted in 15 degree, leaving vast green area in the front. This is a unique way to open a more huge front space striking back as view and open air to the inside.

The front green area brings benefits also as intermediary open space to soften the building scale to the surrounding and create visual bridge of transition between the public park and the house itself.