Feature: Wood Awards 2025 | 43
Five acres of under-used garden have been transformed into an oasis of urban nature, telling the story of change on our planet over time. Within this setting are two timber and stone buildings: the Garden Kitchen, a visitor café, and the Nature Activity Centre, providing space for youth learning activities and scientific research.
Combining a Douglas fir glulam timber frame with a load-bearing masonry façade, the café features a stepped roof with a glazed lantern and openable panels for natural ventilation. The education pavilion takes a low barn-like form with long elevations. Its asymmetric pitched roof – formed from solid Douglas fir and clad with western red cedar shingles – projects dramatically to provide sheltered seating space, as well as capturing rainwater. Both spaces are characterised by carefully detailed, efficient timber structures that are expressed throughout. These pioneering, low energy buildings have been designed to have a positive impact on the environment and to inspire greater connection with nature. By using locally sourced, low impact materials – including UK- grown Douglas fir and British limestone – the Urban Nature Project is an exemplar of low embodied carbon construction that supports local supply chains and vernacular craft. The Urban Nature Project timber structures were designed by Feilden Fowles in collaboration with specialist timber design and subcontractor Xylotek, and structural engineering by engineers HRW. They were built by Walter Lilly, with joinery from SP Joinery and wood supplied by East Brothers Ltd and Marley. The landscape architects for the project were J&L Gibbons, with the multi-disciplinary design team including Max Fordham and Gitta Gschwendtner. “The project, in its entirety, exemplifies environmental sensitivity and thoughtful timber detailing,” said Jim Greaves, principal of Hopkins Architects and lead judge in the Buildings category of the Wood Awards. “Throughout, the timber is visible but protected; light and elegant; using simple, economic joinery to create legible, highly refined buildings that are at one with their setting and create valuable high-use spaces for a much-loved public institution.” The Wood Awards building judges, a team of world-leading professionals led by Jim Greaves, visited all 20 buildings shortlisted in the Wood Awards before deciding the winner, in one of the UK’s most rigorous assessments for any competition.
“The UK’s long and proud tradition of timber construction is powerfully reflected in this year’s Gold Award winner,” said David
The Urban Nature Project at the Natural History Museum comprises a Garden Kitchen, a visitor cafe, and the Nature Activity Centre, providing space for youth learning activities and scientific research PHOTOS JIM-STEPHENSON
www.ttjonline.com | Spring 2026 | TTJ
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