Projects: Sunny Hills Contry Club Hotel

Sunny Hills Country Club Hotel,
Launceston, Tasmania

Architect
Michael R. Cooper & Associates
email - mcarch@enternet.com.au
http://www.isw.com.au/mcarchitects

Engineer
Dale Luck & Associates

Owner & Builder
Michael Khrushka

Location
Ravenswood, Tasmania

Date Completed
1997

Glue Laminated Portal Hotel

This Sunny Hill Country Club Hotel was built from timber for two main reasons: timber has an established association with relaxation and leisure and it is an easy to use and economic building material.

Designers recognise that there is an implicit association between timber finishes and an ambience of ease, invitation and warmth. They have regularly sought to exploit this association in recreational buildings, such as resorts, hotels and clubs and found that with skill, they can craft the varied colours and textures of timber species and products into the desired character of their buildings.

The architects for this building used timber in the exposed structure of the building, in benches and surfaces in the bar, in wall paneling and for ceiling lining. They believed timber would make the hotel customers feel comfortable in their surroundings. Also, the architects knew much of the timber could be produced locally and, as pine is a plantation product, was environmentally sustainable.

Timber construction also pleased their client. He had built with timber in commercial structures before and wanted to do so again. He found it generally more economical and workable than alternatives. It suited the available workforce. For this project, the client achieved considerable cost saving as:

1. the glue laminated portals were more economic than similar steel construction.

2. labour costs were lower. There was substantial saving in using carpenters rather than steel fabricators;

3. the structural detailing was reasonably simple, eliminating the need for extensive shop drawing; and

4.the material was very workable on site, allowing for ready adjustment during construction.

Structural Description

This is a cruciform plan building with four wings of timber portals. At the juncture of the cruciform, the portals give way to large valley and ridge beams propped at the centre with a steel column. The portal rafter and column members are 395 x 115 mm glue laminated radiata pine. Epoxy steel dowels are used for many of the major structural connections. Dowels set in epoxy fix the rafter and columns where they butt together and the steel bolting plates used for the base and ridge joints are fixed to the timber by the same method. Bolted steel brackets are used for the other joints

Hardwood blocks are used to fix the purlins to the rafters. Both are nailed on site with gas powered nail guns. The purlins are sawn pine, nail plated together to provide the required length. Internally, the ceiling are lined with radiata pine boards.