48 | Feature: Timber Design Conference
◄ The London conference, which was
backed by timber market development body Swedish Wood, attracted an audience of over 200. They included timber traders, timber builders, architects and other specifiers, developers and housing association representatives.
The objective of the event, said TDUK chief
executive David Hopkins, was to examine how timber “fits into the bigger construction picture” and how the wider timber building sector “takes advantage of current trends and latest materials, products and systems”. “It’s also about connecting the supply chain,” he told the audience. “This is not a one-way process; we want to hear from you. At TDUK we want to join with other organisations, package up our interests with them and make our voice heard by policy and decision makers.”
The opportunities are growing, he maintained, with government now clearly backing growth in building with wood, as underlined by its Timber in Construction (TiC) Roadmap drawn up with industry. This presents strategies for boosting timber building to meet housing need, and reducing construction emissions. Critically, it’s also about underpinning growth in UK forestry and wood production. “We’ve seen across the rest of Europe, that growth in timber consumption results in growth in forests,” said Mr Hopkins. TDUK’s latest activities to support the
sector, he added, include the relaunch of its Wood Campus modular online educational platform, again backed by Swedish Wood, designed for ‘students’ across the timber and timber building supply chain.
PROVIDING BEAUTIFUL, SUSTAINABLE PLACES TO LIVE The opening speaker at the conference was Jonathan Smales, former Greenpeace managing director and now CEO of ‘campaigning development company’ Human Nature, which is dedicated to “delivering an exponentially sustainable future at neighbourhood level”. Its widely publicised current big project is the Phoenix in Lewes, described by TDUK as potentially the biggest timber-based housing development the UK has ever seen.
Covering a 7.9ha brownfield site, it will comprise over 700 homes. It will repurpose as much of the material from existing buildings on the site as possible, but the new housing will principally feature offsite manufactured timber-based assemblies. These will comprise engineered wood, and timber cassettes, with hemp and other bio-based material used for insulation.
Top: The new housing on the Phoenix project will principally feature offsite manufactured timber-based assemblies Above: WeCanMake housing in Rodfords Mead in Bristol
TTJ | September/October 2025 |
www.ttjonline.com
A number of architects are working on the Phoenix, with their brief to prioritise people over cars, and to incorporate “shared courtyards, parks, green corridors and rooftop
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