French glulam specialist Mathis has so far supplied only one UK project: the Prestwick Tennis Centre, Andy Murray’s original club. But it sees growing market potential for its build systems, hence its first stand in the French pavilion at Ecobuild.
“We’ve already spoken to a lot of architects,” said international project manager Alan Dolleans. “There’s a huge interest in sustainable building solutions – and we can supply the complete package.”
The Alsace-based company is France’s biggest glulam manufacturer. It recently expanded its plant to 17,000m² and has annual capacity of 10,000m³, necessitating importing timber from Austria and Sweden to supplement French supplies.
“That’s roughly a building every day,” said UK agent George Brennan. “And it’s a very technically advanced factory, including robotic routers capable of producing a huge range of beam profiles and shapes, from round and oval, to an ‘elephant’s tusk’ taper.”
Mathis has worked on some high design architectural projects, including the 30m-high pods for Renzo Piano’s award-winning Tjibaou Cultural Centre in New Caledonia. But its bread and butter are mainstream commercial and sports buildings, including a 55,000-seater stadium in Lille, France, large-scale residential developments and industrial structures. Besides working with architects, it also supplies ‘off-the-peg’ designs.
Everything is produced in-house. “Mathis even has a foundry where it makes its steel connectors and it also produces a sound-deadening timber/concrete plank floor system,” said Mr Brennan.
