Lend Lease’s Head of Operational Excellence, Daryl Patterson, will join a panel of eight other international experts to ensure the US$2 million Tall Wood competition, jointly sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture, will lead to a viable project winner.

The competition invites US developers, institutions, organisations and design teams to submit entries that undertake alternative solutions to construct taller timber buildings.

According to the organisers, the large prize money is being offered to overcome one of the main barriers to the use of new building materials and systems – the lack of risk capital to support the additional costs of analysing novel design and engineering alternatives.

Patterson was invited to join the jury based on his experience as a developer interested in working with timber projects. We ask him how Australian architects can get past the risk and cost barriers of building taller timber, why the US$2 million prize is important for the competition, and whether anything is done locally to encourage more timber buildings:

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