A TIMBERLESS BUILDING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 430, 29 August 1908, Page 4

A TIMBERLESS BUILDING.

Queer House in Wellington

There is now being erected at Island Bay, Wellington, the first and only building of its kind in the world. The proprietor and others interested are not concerned about the price of timber, and care nothing whether the duty on Oregon pine be increased or abolished. For their building is timberless, with the single exception of the plates on which the roof is to rest. The building is to be a private residence, and is entirely in the nature of an experiment. The material used is a combination of asbestos and ferroconcrete, and the scheme is the invention of Mr Yourelle, an architect. He and Mr Bellingham have patented their method of building throughout New Zealand and Australia, as they hope to be the pioneers of something like a revolution in the construtiou of all kinds of premises—residential, business and otherwise. The sheets of asbestos are imported from Austria (duty free). Concrete is placed between walls of asbestos and iron rods take the place of scantling. In the house now being built the door frames and window frames are of wood, but the syndicate has in view the substitution in future of aluminium. The roof will be of asbestos, and the floor of petrified sawdust.