Timber pioneers

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Around the world, there is an increasing appreciation that replacing steel and concrete with timber systems in construction has an important role to play in reducing carbon emissions.

Alongside quantifiable benefits to the environment, more and more developers and building owners now recognise the benefits that timber buildings offer to employees or occupants, pointing to better health and well-being, and in the case of timber use in offices, improved productivity.

Looking ahead over a 5, 15 and even 30-year time frame, it’s our view that timber products will play an ever more instrumental role in building the sustainable societies of the future.

Around the world, we have a track record working in timber that spans nearly 20 years and over 100 projects. Our contribution to the industry was recognised at the recent Structural Timber Awards, when we took home the prestigious Pioneer Award.

Diversity of application

The award focused on our work across three different projects, which together illustrate some of the innovative and varied applications of timber.

1. Residential: We highlighted the potential for timber products in residential developments, referencing our work designing cross laminated timber modules for NuBuild’s Beechwood West development, the basis for the UK’s very first CLT (Cross laminated timber) homes.
2. Unique structures: We were also able to illustrate the evocative power of timber, as we brought to life our client’s ambition to use timber structures to help promote awareness of mental health in the high-profile installation Talk to Me at Kings Cross, London.
3. Office: The final key area of work recognised in the award was our contribution to the timber office concept for Stora Enso , which we worked on together with Scott Brownrigg Architects and Gardiner & Theobald, cost consultant.

Timber around the globe

While there is demand around the world for timber in the design of residential and educational buildings, it’s the commercial sector which is currently experiencing a boom.

Players like Stora Enso acting with great foresight, and educating the market in the process, have shown that timber construction can now take its place as a mainstream material in the office sector. We are seeing that while in the early years of timber use, adoption was driven by consultants and designers, it’s now a top-down phenomenon where developers and building owners are increasingly specifying the use of timber, mindful of the benefits in terms of the messages they are able to give about their commitment to the sustainability agenda and ultimately the appeal they are able to offer to end users of their building.

Benefits of timber

The Stora Enso concept illustrates many of the benefits of timber use in commercial buildings, including:

• Cost savings. Wooden office buildings have economic benefits compared to steel and concrete buildings. Working with timber, cost savings can be made in a number of ways, for example, with offsite manufacturing, on site labour costs are reduced; lower substructure construction costs are possible due to the lower weight of the whole building and reduced foundation requirements; and, wood elements can be installed with smaller cranes rather an expensive tower cranes.
• Faster and more efficient construction. Timber buildings can be constructed some 20-30% faster than buildings constructed with conventional materials, and because timber elements are optimised for load capacity, the total number of trucks to the site is lower, which is cheaper and more sustainable.
• Sustainability. Wooden buildings can help developers, owners and occupiers make good on their ambitions for sustainability. Building with timber products helps reduce fossil carbon emissions and sustainable forest management guarantees new trees which store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Wood construction materials store an amount of carbon equal to approximately half of their dry weight and one cubic metre of wood product captures approximately 700kg of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. At the end of their life cycle, wood products can be reused, recycled or used for energy production.
• Flexibility. The Stora Enso concept has been developed as a ‘guiding hand’ which illustrates how the timber office can be adapted for a whole range of buildings and regulatory requirements, with markets including Sweden and Finland, the UK and mainland Europe in mind.
• Health and wellbeing. Studies have shown that an opportunity to connect with the natural environment in the workplace, for example through spaces with wooden surfaces, can increase the health and wellbeing of employees by as much as 13% and productivity by up to 8%.

Looking to the future

The future for timber is bright. Over the coming years, while we anticipate the overall market for new buildings might contract slightly, with an uptick in refurbishing and upgrading existing stock, we expect to see timber building account for an increasing proportion of new builds.

With this growing adoption of the material, there is more investment and therefore even faster innovation. In the next five to fifteen years we expect to see growing use of lean timber products, such as LVL (Laminated veneer lumber) and cassettes, which will allow for timber products that perform the same function but with less material.

Thirty years from now there will be greater diversification of species, where different timber species are used for different timber products, preventing monocultures in forests. The question of monoculture vs multi species forest is key and brings together competing considerations.

There are economic and environmental efficiencies to be gained in monoculture forests, but multi-species forests offer considerable benefits, including social, in that recreational activities are enhanced, there is reduced susceptibility to disease and pests, and there is a boost to the ecology, supporting wildlife and biodiversity.

Over the last nearly two decades we’ve pioneered the use of timber in residential and educational buildings, and now increasingly in commercial buildings. Through our work designing and engineering some of the world’s largest and tallest timber buildings we have played a major role in furthering understanding of timber as a construction material. Timber is now poised at an exciting point, as interest grows globally in its use, and we are proud to remain at the forefront of industry, supporting clients around the world.

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