STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS 37
Skilling up to design sustainable timber buildings
Andrew Orriss from the Structural Timber Association says that with the Government’s Timber in Construction Policy Roadmap pinpointing skills as one of the key themes to address, the industry needs to take a series of steps
A
ccording to the UK Government’s own figures, the built environment accounts for around 40% of carbon
emissions. More specifically, construction activity accounts for around 50 million tonnes of CO2
emissions, over half of
which is related to product and material production. If the UK is to meet its commitment to achieve net zero by 2050, the construction industry must transition to a more sustainable building material, such as timber.
Late in 2023, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) released the Timber in Construction (TiC) Policy Roadmap, which set out a framework for increasing the use of structural timber in construction. The TiC Policy Roadmap was the culmination of many months of collaboration between the Government and the industry, of which the Structural Timber Association (STA) was a key contributor, and focused on identifying the important steps that need to be taken to encourage wider adoption of timber as a construction material. This activity was broken down into seven priority themes, each of which explored a different challenge, ranging from improving data to promoting innovation.
One of the priority themes within the Roadmap focuses on increasing skills, capacity and competency across the supply chain, explaining that increasing the use of timber in construction requires an appropriately skilled and competent workforce which is confident in the use and application of a range of timber systems. Additionally, attracting new entrants, along with up-skilling and reskilling existing workforce practitioners is essential in achieving this.
So, how does this relate to design and architecture in the build process? In order to successfully transition to timber as a construction material, we cannot simply replace other materials in a like-for-like fashion. Instead, we must design with timber in mind – not only to make the best use of the material, but to ensure that it is used in the most efficient way. As such, early collaboration at the design stage between the client and architects, along with any other key stakeholders is crucial in order to achieve sustainable buildings with high performance and energy efficiency. There is more to be done, however in engineering, architecture and design, education and training institutions have begun to rise to the challenge through a number of programmes and schemes. Additionally, the STA have launched a new skills hub to provide STA members and
Early collaboration at the design stage between the client and architects, along with any other key stakeholders, is crucial in order to achieve sustainable buildings with high performance and energy efficiency
ADF JUNE 2024
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
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