Architect Andrew Waugh spoke to us about the core aims behind MultiPly, to “provoke a debate around how environmental challenges can be addressed through innovative, affordable construction”.

Woods Bagot’s recent redesign of KPMG’s Bishop See office in Perth, WA is a clear demonstration of what it means to be site specific.

Not only has the space been designed to enhance the new agile and more connected working culture of this global professional services giant, but its design is rooted in something even more fundamental – the earth on which the building stands. 

The café is the first project in Australia to use thermally-modified American tulipwood in exterior cladding.  Selected for its rich colour and uniform texture, American tulipwood provided not only the aesthetic impact sought by Bruce Henderson Architects , but also the stability. 

A unique partnership of business, academia and applied research came together to make the tulipwood cross laminated timber panels (CLT) for MultiPly. They all also agreed that the project held lessons for the future of wood-based building and specifically use of hardwood in engineered timber construction.  

The recent emergence of commercial thermal modification (TMT) applied to hardwoods has opened up new growth opportunities for other American hardwood timber species for exterior applications, which were previously the domain of chemically treated softwoods and tropical hardwoods.