Innovate to survive, TRADA tells industry at London conference

The key to the future success of timber is innovation; innovation in the way it’s used and supplied and the products made from it.

That was the message from TRADA chief executive Andrew Abbott at the organisation’s 75th anniversary conference at the Royal Society of Arts in London.

The overriding factor that will shape the timber market and particularly construction in coming years, he told the audience of 140, will be the “need to move to a low carbon economy”.

“Sustainability is moving form political ideal to commercial imperative,” he said.

In this new environment, timber’s renewability and potential as a natural insulant gave it an inherent advantage.

“But competing materials are also lookng at the sustainability agenda,” said Mr Abbott. “To meet this challenge, the industry needs to come forward with value-engineered solutions that make a significant leap forward and leave the opposition at the starting gate,” said Mr Abbott.

Underlining the contribution TRADA plans to play in this process, the conference included presentations from the three projects that won its 75th anniversary research competition, each of which get £25,000 of TRADA research time.

Architectural practice White Design’s study is looking at thermal mass in timber buildings. To date, said co-founder Craig White, timber-framed buildings have been defined as lightweight, but cross-laminated timber panels could “change the designation of timber buildings from thermally lightweight to middle-weight and beyond,” he said.

Another competition winner is the Welsh Ty Unnos quick-build timber frame system from Coed Cymru, which is based on box beams made from home-grown softwood. The TRADA research work is being used to secure European Technical Approval for it.

The third project is from timber bridge specialist CTS and is looking at further development of steel-dowelled hardwood laminated beams.

Mr Abbott said that the competition projects highlighted the diversity of the work undertaken by TRADA and that it planned to “develop its research base further, to provide the essential underpinning work that is necessary for timber to remain competitive.”