News
May 18, 2009
In Touch with Timber – inspiring insight into innovation
TRADA's In Touch with Timber conference last week attracted more than 200 architects, engineers, specifiers and other construction industry professionals for a day of ‘inspiration and innovation' in timber.
In his opening remarks, Chief Executive Andrew Abbott said, ‘Ecological building materials are becoming mainstream and in this respect timber has an enduring appeal.' This message was reflected in the opening presentation by Simon Smith, Director of Ramboll. ‘We all feel that timber is the right material to use, but that needs to be backed up by numbers. We need to address the environmental reporting of timber. And he stressed: ‘We also need to change the perception of the scale of projects which are possible in timber. We are working on projects of 10,000m2 or more.'
Mark Sowter, formerly Tesco's Head of Environmental Construction, discussed the supermarket giant's approach to sustainable development. He said, ‘Customers want to be green and are looking at businesses to lead the way.'
When Tesco approaches a new store, he added, we are looking at a triple bottom line - economic, environmental and social. The design of a new store has to be ‘simple and repeatable'. Revenue and capital costs have to balance. ‘We have to consider maintenance costs and running costs. It can't be sustainable if it doesn't pay back.'
The company spent a year developing the concept for its environmental store, ‘Anything likely to delay the project was designed out,' said Mr Sowter. ‘Only when the design was ready did we decide where to build, so that there were no site restraints on the design.'
Services, he said 'were more important than anything. ‘Designing them in at the outset is absolutely key to reducing carbon emissions.' The environmental store at Cheetham Hill in Manchester is targeting a 70% reduction in carbon emissions, which in turn will significantly reduce operating costs and is crucial to achieving a 50% reduction in carbon emissions across the estate by 2020.
Keynote speaker Alison Brooks of Alison Brooks Architects is recognised as one of the UK's leading architectural talents and has won the Stephen Lawrence Prize, the Manser Medal and the Stirling Prize. The theme of her talk was ‘authenticity and identity'. Having grown up in Canada, she said, ‘timber was the norm. It was part of my consciousness'.
In her view, the role of the architect is to provide ‘authenticity and identity through their work. As an architect, you are also an artist and to produce good work you also need an obsession.'
A sense of geometry imbues her work and, in several of the case studies selected to illustrate her talk, Ms Brooks demonstrated an affection for the Brazilian hardwood ipé, which she designed into her buildings as flooring, decking, cladding and roofing, showcasing its flexibility and durability. (See TRADA's online species directory)
The afternoon programme, divided into workshops, worked well and all were well attended and generated lively discussion. Delegates were able to select three of the six topics offered, including:
Workshops for architects:
- Use of timber cladding in refurbishment (TRADA Senior Consultant Architect Patrick Hislop RIBA)
- Timber & Thermal Mass (Craig White, Director, White Design)
- Innovations in wood - wood modifications (Dr Andrew Pitman, TRADA Technology).
Workshops for engineers:
- Introduction to Engineered timber in Europe (Michael Keller, Senior Timber Consultant , Mikecon)
- Introduction to Eurocode 5 (Dr Hugh Mansfield-Williams, TRADA Technology)
- Eurocode 5 case study (Richard Harris, Technical Director, Buro Happold).
An exhibition of timber products and services took place throughout the day and sponsors reported a good level of interest from delegates, with positive leads and genuine enquiries. A PDF of the exhibitor supplement outlining the products showcased can be found at http://www.trada.co.uk/itwt09/sponsors.html
Feedback from delegates, too, has generally been ‘very positive', said TRADA Head of Marketing and Information Services Jeremy Vibert. ‘There was a good atmosphere throughout the day. The mix of talks appeared to offer the right balance between inspiration, innovation and information. The feedback forms show that the programme overall, and the individual talks, scored very highly and many delegates have said they would definitely attend a future event.'
The presentations are now available on the TRADA website in PDF format at http://www.trada.co.uk/itwt09/programme.html The audio for each speaker will be added by the end of the month.
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