64 | Sector Focus: Timber in Construction


SUMMARY


■The UK is a world leader in building with engineered wood


■The Part B Building Regulations changes have led to a loss of confidence


■WTA has come up with a specific response


■The primary driver of the New Model Building is reduced carbon impact


AND COMPLIANCE LOW CARBON ACHIEVING


There’s now a blueprint for multi-storey low carbon mass timber building that’s also compliant with latest building regulation fire safety rules. Mike Jeffree reports


The UK is a world leader in building in engineered wood. There are over 500 completed projects around the country. But just when we need to build more in timber to hit critical decarbonising construction targets, post-Grenfell disaster changes to Part B of the Building Regulations have, in the words of timber specialist architects Waugh Thistleton Architects (WTA), led to a “lack of confidence in how engineered wood can be used for multi-storey residential building”. This, according to speakers at the recent Footprint+ conference in Brighton on zero carbon building, has infected designers, contractors, developers and insurers.


The new rules bar use of combustible material on external walls of residential buildings over 18m. But, as WTA points out, some have consequently lost their nerve about using combustible materials, notably wood, in exterior walls full stop. The Greater London Authority is perhaps the most notable example. In its London Plan, it blocks the use of “combustible materials in external walls of all homes and buildings, regardless of height”.


Above: The Part B amendments have led to a lack of confidence in how engineered wood can be used for multi-storey residential building


TTJ | July/August 2023 | www.ttjonline.com


“While the change in [Building Regs] was not prescriptive or intended to prejudice any one material, it has had an inadvertent and discriminatory effect on the use of engineered timber – our only viable low embodied


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