passport

Materials passport – reimagining how valuable materials are tracked and recycled

Advocacy, Articles for Kaveh Andisheh, Structural Systems, Sustainability, [email protected]

A healthy sustainability solution for structural engineers: nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is reused. Traditionally, structural engineers have followed optimisation procedures to reduce material usage, increase the efficiency of designed systems, and consequently reduce negative environmental impacts. Recently, a new procedure, termed ‘healthy sustainability’ has emerged, aimed at creating positive rather than reducing…

tikanga-maori-webinar

Watch the replay: A tikanga Māori approach to creating future-ready and resilient cities

Advocacy, Articles for Troy Coyle, General HERA, [email protected]

Recently, I listened to a webinar organised by ACE New Zealand titled “A tikanga Māori approach to creating future-ready and resilient cities.” In this “webinar, speakers included Troy Brockbank ((Te Rarawa, Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) Pou Ārahi Māori – Māori Advisory Lead (Principal) at Pattle Delamore Partners); Rau Hoskins (Director at Design Tribe); Tyrone Newson (Development…

fire-resistance

Fire and burn out resistance of timber columns

Advocacy, Articles for Kaveh Andisheh, Research & development, Structural Systems, [email protected]

Data on the cool down phase for timber structures is something designers and regulators need to consider when it comes to load carrying capacity of CLT structures. This thinking comes about after noting an interesting paper in the recent issue of Fire Safety Journal highlighting the critical aspect of the cool down phase for timber…

treated-timber

How will treated timber be treated with the ‘wood first policy’?

Advocacy, Articles for Kaveh Andisheh, Research & development, Structural Systems, [email protected]

While critical technical aspects associated with treated timber in construction remain unsolved, the ‘wood first policy’ is the wrong decision at the wrong time. There needs to be better science based understanding of fire safety and health and environment issues.  We need only look at treated timber data in New Zealand, issues associated with treated…

multistorey-building

Study shows cast-in-place reinforced concrete more affordable than cross laminated timber in a US-based 10-storey building

Advocacy, Articles for Kaveh Andisheh, Research & development, Structural Systems, [email protected]

A recent technical study has come to HERA’s attention as it highlights our stance that you should choose infrastructure material based on design parameters. The technical study that we refer to was performed by the structural engineering firm Cary Kopczynski & Company in Seattle, WA. It compared the affordability of a hypothetical 10-story residential building…

fire-explosion

Research and evidence gaps on fire performance challenged

Advocacy, Articles for Kaveh Andisheh, Research & development, Structural Systems, [email protected]

A recent John Hopkins University Report validates our concerns at HERA around the lack of data and baseless assumptions relating to mass timber performance in high rise buildings. This is not a new conversation for HERA. We have previously raised concern about the lack of research relating to the fire performance of building materials generally…

welding

Is there a welder shortage in New Zealand?

Articles for Michail Karpenko, Career, Fabrication 4.0, Resources, [email protected]

The global welder shortage is a growing and well-known phenomenon. A recent article – Global welder shortage – viewpoints from three continents asked for the opinions of specialists in three continents on this topic. Their insight on welder shortages were as follows: Welders are more in demand than ever, The manufacturing industry will continue being…

climate-change

Want to go carbon neutral? Here’s where to start!

Articles for Troy Coyle, Comms 4.0, Fabrication 4.0, Innovation Centre, Resources, Structural Systems, Sustainability, [email protected]

HERA has just gone through an independent review of its carbon footprint. We’re sharing our experience, the resultant report and accounting spreadsheet in the hope that this will help you to do the same! As we increasingly see and experience the tangible impacts of climate change and the visible impacts of business activity (or lack…

five

The five ‘silver linings’ to COVID-19

Articles for Troy Coyle, Comms 4.0, Fabrication 4.0, Innovation Centre, Resources, Structural Systems, [email protected]

Our current state of play has created a massive disruption to business as usual – but are there any positives to come out from the Covid-19 pandemic? Covid-19 has dramatically impacted us all in many different ways. Of course, most discussions have been on the negatives of Covid-19, but here are five silver linings that…

steel-design

Future-proofing the steel industry with design innovation

Articles for Nandor Mago, Consultancy, Research & development, Structural Systems, Sustainability, [email protected]

HERA recently commissioned an external market research company to figure out what NZ society thinks of our metals industry. The outcome was nothing short of interesting. Why? Because when asked if the steel industry was prepared for future technologies and innovation – only 47% felt we were. And of that, 79% responded that future-proofing the…