Six storey commercial building

Factors which support the proposal to use roundwood for multi-storey commercial building include its time provencompetence as a structural product; the advantages for the environment; physical properties which are superior to sawnlumber; and lower material and manufacturing costs.The paper briefly reports on how uniform diameter roundwood overcomes the problems due to the natural taper of polesto ensure predictable dimensions for assembly, and standardised joint cleats.The aims for the 6 storey commercial building are outlined above and a prototype building to achieve these aims isdiagrammatically proposed.Future research directions for this line of study include:proposing column locations in plan (perhaps at 4.8m centres in both directions)choosing a floor system to achieve suitable sound and fire insulationanalysing a 6 storey building to check the ability of commonly available uniform diameter roundwood to providethe required strengthassessing the economic viability of this type of buildingInvestigating further the above lateral load resisting system.Because the axial forces in the lateral load resisting system are relatively large for timber elements, it will probably benecessary to carry out racking tests on a full scale model. Testing would ensure that the members and joints performedas expected.This paper outlines a possible new direction for utilising pinus radiata. In some ways the proposed 6 storey commercialbuilding is being informed by the designs of the large span timber road and rail bridges of the early 20th century whosestructural members had internal actions of a similar magnitude.