NEWS 5 TIMBER CONSTRUCTION Reframing structural timber
James Parker visited timber frame producers and residential schemes to discover how Scotland dispels myths that are holding England back from wider adoption.
I was recently fortunate to be the only journalist invited by the Structural Timber Association to join a delegation of housebuilders, industry bodies and even representatives from banks, to learn lessons from Scotland that support the case for timber frame in mainstream housebuilding. It was packed with visits to timber frame factories, developments across north-eastern Scotland, and a coastal forest, to explore the often brief journey taken by structural timber from source to fi nished home. Timber frame is by far the commonest method of building houses in Scotland; 92% of new homes are constructed using the method – contrasting with the English housebuilding sector, which in 2019 built only 9% of homes using timber frame. A substantial chunk of Scotland is forestry (19%, which the Scottish Government hopes to grow to 21% by 2032), whereas only10% of England is woodland, but there is a target to double this by 2050. This lack of locally available timber only partly explains the low usage of timber frame in England, given that the usage levels in Scotland are so out of proportion to the relative supply levels. And, with the Scottish and English climates not being drastically different, and buildings arguably facing a harsher time north of the border, it is arguably more about cultural mindsets and received wisdom on timber frame, which this trip was designed to help shift. Our diverse group included Tom Smith, head of architectural design at housebuilder Avant Homes; and one of the designers present keen to see the potential for transferring mainstream Scottish experience southwards. Architect, sustainability campaigner and Stirling Prize jury member Anna Lisa McSweeney from Built By Nature also witnessed the various everyday ways timber frame was being employed. The group included several other SME housebuilders, eager to learn approaches from Scotland; also present were Strata Homes, Croudace Homes, and Newett
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Homes, as well as Untypical Group (Hopkins and Tilia Homes), alongside Miller Group and Persimmon from the volume side. We were treated to some eye-opening tours around higher-end Scottish home developments by Cala Homes and Kirkwood Homes – the latter demonstrating how they had evolved from homebuilding to creating their own offsite supply va a timber frame factory. And Bancon Homes showed how, working with timber frame fi rm Deeside, timber was providing the ideal, fast, high performance solution for social housing schemes too. Other leading technical fi gures present were Rachel Witcherley, technical manager at Homes England, and Lewis Taylor, principal technical specialist at NHBC, plus John Kirby, executive director of timber accreditation body PEFC. Further practical perspectives came from infl uential engineers; Adam Tilford, technical and innovation manager at Vistry Group, and Richard Lankshear, director at the Future Homes Hub. Lastly, trade body Swedish Wood gave the Scandinavian view, while Lloyds and Barclays Bank were exploring the consumer drivers for timber frame, including the funding implications. As you can see, there was a useful breadth to the group and the ability for a range of perspectives to be aired at both the manufacturing facilities visited (West Fraser’s Inverness OSB plant, James Jones’ I-joist factory in Forres, and the John Gordon & Son sawmill in Nairn), and developments in Banchory and Aberdeen.
The view was expressed several times that in order to achieve the huge uplift in homes delivery needed to get even close to the 1.5 million mark by the 2029 deadline, all sensible solutions (and principally timber frame as well as brick and block) were needed in the mix. It is not an either/ or, and the key issue is that in England the housebuilding sector needs to try and move away from the persistent stigma attached to timber frame. But to achieve sustainability targets as well as the sector’s delivery targets (for example on embodied carbon), UK supply of timber, and particularly English supply, needs to ramp up. A case in point; the West Fraser factory we visited is the only one in the UK, excepting Ireland.
Forget World in Action, it’s timber in action!
It seems somewhat hard to believe, but a single 1983 World in Action ITV documentary, ‘The System Builder’ created a deep stigma in England around timber in housebuilding, which arguably still exists. Picking on a few examples of Barratt Homes projects, it saw the timber frame market tank, and a widespread loss of trust in the method. It has been a long slow road to rebuilding consumer trust, despite the fact that timber roof trusses have remained the default fi t-for-purpose option for mainstream housebuilding since then. The image has been compounded by perceived fi re issues (down to fi res during construction), and cost of offsite-based approaches. However, recent widespread
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