A Private Nature Reserve located next to a major National Park in the Eastern Cape is now under development.
MEWA is building the Free Form cross laminated, glue laminated timber canopy structures for the accommodation buildings.
Free Form Structures are 2-dimensional shapes made from timber, cross laminated 3 times and then linked together with joints to form shapes that have a 3-dimensional final structure.
Free Form cross laminated timber structures are not found in many places in the world today as they are very complex to design, engineer and build.
The structures have been designed by Dayne Wright of Millennia Architects.
The structures being built by MEWA are self-supporting and the weight of these structures needs to be carefully balanced.
These structures are 13 metres long, 4.6 metres high, 5.5 metres wide and weigh in at 2.2 tons. They will be assembled in the MEWA factory in Darling, then taken apart and re-built on site.
This will be the first Free Form cross laminated structure to have been built in South Africa. The combination of cross laminated timber linked into gluelam timber has also not been attempted in South Africa before.
MEWA are again at the cutting edge of engineering new Mass Timber Structures that are a 1st in South Africa.
Concept pictures
Gallery
