GTT Open Day

🪵 It's been a busy couple of months at Arboralis with lots of discussions all coming back to opportunities for timber and MMC.

🟠 So it was appropriate we got to attend the GTT Open Day in Orange yesterday and see the hard work of the team there pay off with a large number of interested visitors and some great showcase projects to get hands on with in the forecourt.

👷 We heard from the NSW Building Commissioner, James Sherrard about the challenges of a declining workforce and a frankly scary drop in the number of apprentices in the last few years. We need to find ways to do things more efficiently with less labour and prefabrication is something that needs to form a huge part of the conversation for the future.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 We were given a tour of the factory and got to see some wall panels running though the production line. It was great to be in the last group along with the family of some of the factory crew, who got to see what their dads have been so busy with in the last couple of weeks!

📐 Outside in the forecourt we saw two projects which we have supported GTT with the structural design of, including the development of many unique bespoke details to suit the system.

🏠 The first was a finished 2-bed cottage, supported on screw piles and made of panelised floor, wall and roof elements. This one was uniquely designed utilising design for disassembly principles as this is only its temporary home and it will eventually be taken back apart into its individual panels and go to its home as a worker's cottage for Pentarch.

🏗️ The second was part of a live demonstration of a two-storey townhouse, which could be applied to most locations around the country. It was built using posi-strut floors cassettes and pre-clad walls, we got to see some of the ground floor wall panels being lifted into position while we watched. It was especially impressive to see the tolerances in some of the joints.

👏There was a lot of great buzz throughout the event with a lot of good discussion had. Congratulations to the whole team at GTT on the progress and we look forward to seeing what you guys can do in the coming year.