Serneke Australia has unveiled its first Perth project; an $8 million 20-apartment timber building on Beaufort Street.
Serneke Australia has unveiled its first Perth project; an $8 million 20-apartment timber building on Beaufort Street.
Serneke Australia launched in 2018, following the merger of Swedish construction and development company Serneke and Perth-based Consortium Builders.
The organisation’s first Perth-based project, named BOHO (Beaufort House) will comprise seven storeys, with the majority of the building to be constructed from timber panels prefabricated by Offsite, a construction technology company based in Kewdale.
Part of the building - a three-storey podium facing Beaufort Street - will be clad in brick, which Serneke said would reflect the area’s architectural heritage.
BOHO was designed by Perth-based architects Whitehaus and will also feature a pop-up flexi-space at street level.
Serneke Australia managing director Andrew Abercromby said there were many benefits to building with timber, with the company hoping BOHO could demonstrate the future of construction in Western Australia.
“We can have wall panels framed and clad in the factory, fully insulated and delivered to site with double-glazed windows already installed,” Mr Abercromby said.
“The accuracy involved means rapid and tight construction, allowing us to achieve the very highest standards for energy efficiency and internal comfort.
“This process causes much less disruption to the neighborhood during construction, and results in 80 per cent lower on-going energy costs for the life of the building.”
Mr Abercromby said using timber would enable the apartments, which were designed for owner-occupiers, to be quieter and more comfortable than traditional apartment stock.
“We’ve seen a bit of greenwashing in Perth recently, with some developments claiming low-carbon sustainability simply due to the addition of rooftop photovoltaic panels,” he said.
“Low-embodied energy needs to be designed in from the outset. Ongoing operational energy is achieved firstly by creating a low energy demand before any attempts to offset high demand with onsite power generation.
“Timber and offsite construction are the future for more sustainable buildings – and for more comfortable, lower-cost homes.”
Serneke said an independent life cycle analysis by eTool, a whole building life cycle assessment software, calculated its global warming potential to be at least 60 per cent less than a benchmark, convention building.
BOHO is expected to be evaluated by the Joint Development Assessment Panel in December.
The project will be one of several timber-led projects planned and underway in Perth, including; Yolk Property Group’s six-storey mass-timber-framed office development in Fremantle; GDI Property's $100 million wood-steel hybrid 11-storey office tower in the CBD ; and Australian Development Capital’s (ADC_) proposal for the timber Leadlight Hotel on the corner of Newcastle and Beaufort Streets.