50 | Feature: Timber Design Conference
AFFORDABLE DEVELOPMENT LAND HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
Well-known timber specialist architect Craig White said the company he co-founded, Agile Homes, has developed a model for delivering offsite manufactured, ‘fabric first’ homes for people in housing need combining a wood-structure with hemp, straw, sheep’s wool and other bio-based materials. It has a 26,000ft2 prefabrication hub, which works with ‘flying factories’ near building sites. Besides providing sustainable homes, the core aim of Agile is also to make timber-based construction more affordable and at the Timber Design Conference, Mr White highlighted two of its strategies for this in particular.
The first is to obtain low-cost development land for
sustainable building. Local authorities, he explained, are obliged to consider the social value impact of housing projects, which includes environmental factors. According to the level of this, they can sell land at below market rate. Mr White described it as land that “is free and hiding in plain sight”. The combination of Agile’s focus on homes that deliver on both sustainability and wider social value, means it presses the right local authority buttons. Consequently, it “routinely helps communities and third sector organisations secure land at transactional cost, which means the total development cost of delivering homes is lower”.
Agile is also tapping into carbon offsetting funding to
reduce the end price of its homes. It has developed calculators to establish the carbon content and social value of its housing in order to be able to generate ‘carbon and social value tokens’ (CSVT), which businesses can buy as part of their environment and social governance (ESG) systems and processes. “So rather than offsetting their carbon footprint by investing in thousands of trees, thousands of miles away, they can buy the carbon that we can evidence is being stored for a minimum 60-year design life in our buildings,” said Mr White. “It’s an exciting opportunity and we have now done the world’s first trade in CSVT.” ■
Above: Agile Homes’ Stonebridge Park development
◄ “We also undertake post occupancy performance evaluation using sensors,” said Mr Scott, adding that research had shown that people who live and work in timber buildings “self-report overall better physical and mental health”.
FIRST TIME BUYERS ASPIRE TO A GREEN HOME “A survey also reported that 80% of first-time buyers said they would prefer a ‘green home’ and 77% of buyers would opt for one for their next property,” said Mr Scott. Given the combination of the UK’s Timber in Construction Roadmap and the government’s target for construction to build 1.5 million homes in five years, he added, timber frame building was set for a “step change”. Speakers also addressed how timber building technology is advancing. Matt Stephenson of Ecosystems-
Top: WeCanMake is bringing
housebuilding to community level Above: WeCanMake housing in Rodfords Mead
Technologies (ET) described its development of engineered wood products in home-grown timber. Backed with a £1.5m grant from Innovate UK, it has worked with sustainable building R&D operation BE-ST (Built Environment – Smarter Transformation), which is affiliated to Edinburgh Napier
TTJ | September/October 2025 |
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University. It is now manufacturing CLT, glulam and nail laminated kits for a range of buildings, from housing, through industrial buildings, to schools. ET turned over £4.6m in 2024 and expects that to rise to £8.5m in 2028. “Work we’ve been doing in collaboration with BE-ST, Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Edinburgh has set us up to grow the business quickly to the point where we’re ready for scaled investment,” said Mr Stephenson. Dr Mila Duncheva of leading engineered wood building products supplier Stora Enso said one of its key objectives is to reduce the amount of timber used in construction – the result, “optimised, cost-effective buildings”. It has also focused on making the job of specifiers and end-users working on projects using its products more straightforward in terms of meeting building regulations and safety requirements. “We liaise with insurers, there is documentation for building control, we’ve done large scale fire tests, and tested moisture performance – and we add an end grain sealer to products to protect them from factory to site,” she said. “Internationally, we have 20,000 buildings delivered – we have a system.” ■
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