MATHIS has said its two-year marketing efforts in Qatar have proved fruitful following a contract it received to supply glued laminated (glulam) timber elements of a project at the military parade zone of the new international airport in Doha.

The project is an 80 m x 20 m structure having a mixture of timber/steel elements and a fabric covering. Such a structure was selected because of technical, aesthetic and ecological reasons, Mathis said.

A company statement said the company was awarded the contract after it made several submissions and proposals and participated in many technical meetings. “Our philosophy is simple: we aid and assist architects to realise their projects with our timber structures,” said Alan Dolléans, Mathis ’international projects manager.

Mathis, a family enterprise and European leader in glulam timber construction, provides all the structural calculations and drawings, carries out the fabrication of the structure, arranges the transportation from the factory to the site, and monitors the erection of the frame, he said.

The timber elements were delivered by sea, and then taken to site by lorries. The structure was erected in one week without any difficulty. The contractor responsible for the erection was experienced in erecting steel structures and was pleasantly surprised by the ease of installing the 23-metre-long beams, said Dolléans. “Our trump card is to integrate engineering design with digitally controlled CNC fabrication machinery so that when the elements arrive on site they can rapidly and accurately be assembled in record time,” he explained.

“Having completed this initial project in Qatar, Mathis has successfully shown that it is possible to provide alternative forms of construction in timber in the region. Mathis is currently in the process of studying drawings for other large-scale projects in the Gulf and hopes that between now and the end of 2013 to see other glulam projects springing out of the ground.”

The company completed several projects in Saudi Arabia and the UAE such as the extension to King Khaled Airport in the kingdom and a 35,000 sq m storage building for Adnoc in Abu Dhabi.

Mathis’ products include Acerlam, Colorlam, Ecolam and Redlam. Since 1995, Acerlam has been considered by  insurance companies as a “hard” material like concrete and masonry and favoured because of its high resistance to fire. In Colorlam, the juxtaposition of contrasting wood varieties reinforces the visual impact of the lamination and allows impressive architectural creations. The Ecolam product is naturally resistant, does not require chemical preservatives and is safer, both in use and for the environment. Redlam is described as an aesthetically pleasant product that can provide the visual warmth of redwoods to buildings.