V-SET Services for Engineered Timber

Mass Timber Creates Opportunities

“…developers that construct green buildings will have access to cheaper funding and green-only planning districts. Conversely, those that do not decarbonize will face an existential threat.”

‘Decarbonizing the built environment: Takeaways from COP26’ – McKinsey & Company 2022

A CLT panel in a warehouse
Vistek on site of CLT building under construction with temporary propping visible at 55 Southbank Blvd Melbourne

V-SET Harnesses Mass Timber

V-SET is Vistek’s specialist mass timber unit delivering a range of services to help organisations adopt low embodied carbon construction technologies. We support this journey from strategic planning  through to project execution.

We navigate complexities such as supply chain, design/compliance risk and digital coordination allowing companies to truly unlock the potential that DfMA construction in Mass Timber provides.

The result…

…sustainability delivered with lower risk, shorter programs, and greater returns.

“$130 trillion of private capital committed in the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), the emergence of low-carbon property investment vehicles and CEFC’s recent announcement of $300 million in project financing for its Timber Building Program…

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…you only have to look at how institutional investors have moved their focus to the benefits of decarbonizing our economy to understand that addressing embodied carbon in our built assets is an idea whose time has finally come”.

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Robbie Svars, V-SET

The Challenge

The Australian construction industry has not kept pace with the advancements in DfMA construction and as a result organisations are faced with a complex pathway to adopting mass timber technologies and thus meaningfully addressing the embodied carbon of their built assets.

Conventional contracts, project programs and procurement strategies poorly integrate with the delivery of mass timber projects. Digital design workflows are littered with information cul-de-sacs creating delays and co-ordination risks, and existing project management and costing practices do not account for the specific requirements of working with mass timber.

V-SET addresses these issues by providing the broader ecosystem required to help make mass timber construction flourish in the Australian market.

The Tools

Timber Design and Engineering

At the core of our service is our long experience in timber engineering and deep understanding of the DfMA process. Our design approach is unique to Australia, front-ending installation and fabrication considerations, and providing a design information workflow that better connects to leading mass timber suppliers.

Project and Risk Management

Our mass timber experience spans across the full lifecycle of projects giving us insights to advise on items such as contract structures, NCC compliance and tender evaluation. This perspective supports the development of risk management frameworks to execute individual mass timber projects or broader “timber first” strategies.

Local and Global Network

We provide seamless channels to the local mass timber supply chain as well as the key global suppliers of mass timber to the Australian market. Benefit from our connection to this network as well as our working relationship with broader technical experts, associated suppliers and other services such as CAD-to-CAM workflow specialists.

Strategic Services

Upstream stakeholders can leverage our expertise and network to enact enterprise wide strategies that target reducing built assets’ embodied carbon. AEC entities can embed our service into their design and/or construction activities to help position them as leaders in the bourgeoning mass timber construction industry.

The Opportunities

For Corporate and Government Entities

A strategic approach to the decarbonisation of your built assets.

We help identify the opportunities in your organsiation’s capex pipeline and then assist with systematically incorporating low-embodied construction into your wider reduced-carbon strategic objectives whilst managing supply chain and project risks.

Take advantage of the full life-cycle benefits of mass timber such as reducing running costs, robust/durable structures, health and wellbeing for occupants.

Plan for either future proofing you assets or determine end-of-life repurposing of assets to engage in the circular economy.

Confidently embrace mass timber construction technologies.

Mass timber opens up financing options and new project possibilities but inexperienced entrants to this market historically have struggled on their first developments.

Leverage our experience to get things right the first time. Embed our service in your operations to deliver better designed and planned projects or turn to our expertise to support your investment strategy and project pipeline. We can help you bridge the link to the financing now being directed to low embodied technologies.

Build better performing assets, exploit mass timber’s speed of installation to turn over capital faster, and develop systems that reduces your exposure to project risks.

For Developers, Investors and Property Funds

For AEC Organisations

Build a direct pathway to the mass timber industry.

Moving to mass timber construction from conventional concrete/steel based projects is much more than simply a product substitution.

Bring to your projects a wealth of knowledge in regards to the design and management of mass timber projects coupled with the technical expertise to deliver DfMA design workflows that integrate natively with key mass timber suppliers.

Provide your clients and project backers the assurance that your team has the experience and technical capabilities to deliver projects so that you win more work, get more mass timber projects greenlighted and execute them more profitably.

Market Sectors

Residential and Townhouses

Residential and Townhouses

  • Solid wall construction provides a level of robustness that is ideal for NDIS accommodation.
  • Excellent thermal performance results in far lower heating/cooling costs.
  • Exposed timber finishes promotes well being, ideal for private residencies or government supported housing.

Multi-Residential Apartments

Multi-Residential Apartments

  • Value goes into the asset, not into labour.
  • Lower risk, better quality and faster program to build.
  • High thermal performance means lower operating costs and therefore better NPV.
  • High tolerances deliver better finishes and faster fit-outs.
  • Ideal for Build-to-Rent projects.

Institutional and Commercial

Institutional and Commercial

  • Provide spaces that promote wellbeing in staff and team members.
  • Better thermally performing assets reduce running costs.
  • Landlords can secure and retain high caliber tenants.
  • Tenants can let the physical workspace express their sustainability brand values.

Industrial, Warehousing and Big-Box Retail

Industrial, Warehousing and Big-Box Retail

  • Bring revenue generating assets to market faster.
  • Build high quality and high thermally performing structure to secure quality tenants.
  • Provide better internal environments for workers.
  • Create retail environments that promote wellbeing.

Hotels and Student Accommodation

Hotels and Student Accommodation

  • Ideally suited to pure CLT structures with repetitive floor plans and relatively small spans.
  • Rapid erections speeds reduces project costs and brings revenue generating assets to market faster.
  • Thermal performance reduces running costs.
  • Sustainability credentials aligns your assets with leading brands generating more corporate business.

Tall Buildings Hybrid Steel/Concrete

Tall Buildings Hybrid Steel/Concrete

  • Exploit highly prefabricated systems to accelerate program and reduce risk.
  • Streamline planning approvals with outstanding sustainability credentials.
  • Deliver assets of high quality and excellent thermal performance.
  • Have a high impact on lowering embodied carbon in the built environment.

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