MOTAT LVL BUILDING

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The Blister Hangar at MOTAT was based on a World War II design used extensively throughout Britain as a transportable aircraft hangar. The original building was relocated to MOTAT in 1979 from Ardmore Airfield and featured a wooden rib design, clad with corrugated steel and a concrete floor. A project to relocate the Blister Hangar and construct a new aviation display building was set in motion in 2009, with Paneltech identified as the preferred contractor for erecting the laminated veneer lumber (LVL) cladding for the renovated building.

  • Date: September 2011
  • Location: Western Springs, Auckland
  • Client: MOTAT (Paneltech subcontracting to NZ Strong)

MOTAT commissioned the renovation project in two stages, with Paneltech involved in the second stage construction of a 55m x 50m display building to house MOTAT’s unique aviation collection. The building was designed to display a range of antique aircraft, including a Sky Hawk. The building had to be large enough to allow aircraft to be easily manoeuvred inside and outside the building, as well as ensuring space for functions to be held in and amongst the aircraft.

Paneltech was chosen to work with lead contractor NZ Strong on the laminated wooden portal frames. The frames create a 42m clear span within the building, now the largest clear span timber building in New Zealand. Once Paneltech was identified as the preferred contractor for erecting the laminated veneer lumber (LVL), the team involved underwent specialist training in advance of the contract, to deliver the 55m x 50m build, featuring 28m x 9m doors,  that allow for 42 aircraft to be moved easily within the complex.

The subcontract value was $400,000.

As well as finishing on time and on budget, this building has gone on to win multiple awards, being recognised in the BEST Awards – Designers Institute of New Zealand 2012 as a Gold Winner in Spatial Design: Public and Institutional Buildings and Sustainable Spatial Design.

The building has also received acclaim as winner of the Sustainable Architecture award at the New Zealand Institute of Architecture’s National Architecture Awards for 2012 and was Highly Commended in the Commercial Engineering Excellence category for the New Zealand Wood Timber Design Awards.

 

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