Ride the Timber Wave

The towering 12m high Timber Wave structure outside the main entrance of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London is a must-see for everyone in and associated with the timber industry. So schedule your trip to South Kensington now. You only have until October 15 to see one of the most inspirational promotions for timber in construction in the UK to date.

The Timber Wave comprises a self-supporting Arch based on a " three-dimensional truss of curved elements”. It’s made of hundreds of specially-made laminated sections of American red oak, cut from 30 tonnes of timber, plus cutting-edge steel connectors.

One of the key partners behind the project is The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), its aim to show just what can be achieved with American red oak, the most prolific, and therefore most sustainable of US hardwood species. And AHEC European director David Venables has no doubt the finished article will achieve the organisation’s goal.

AHEC has backed a number of timber design and structural projects as part of the London Design Festival in recent years. But he believes that the Wave, which forms part of this year’s event, absolutely tops the lot.

“It looks certain to be the main attraction of the Festival,” said Mr Venables. “ It’s not just that the design is very challenging, but thanks to the fact that it will be on Cromwell Road at the front entrance of the V&A Museum for six weeks. It will be seen by hundreds of thousands of passers-by.”

The other key players behind the Timber Wave are Amanda Levete of AL_A Architects, engineer Arup and specialist timber construction contractor Cowley Timberwork.

All agree it was a complex, demanding process. The design, engineering and fabrication were all a huge challenge, and it pushed American red oak to new technical boundaries and beyond. But they also agree that the end result more than justified all the hard work, and opened all their eyes to the possibilities of building with American red oak in particular, and timber in general.

The Timber Wave was originally scheduled to be in place just for the duration of the London Design Festival, but it was given a special extension to October 15 by the V&A Museum – presumably because they were also so impressed by it!

We’ve heard on the grapevine that the structure may be moved to another equally internationally-renowned and prestigious museum. We can’t say which, but it’s not in the UK. So unless you want to dust off your passport to see it, get down to London soon. And don’t just take my word for it.

“The whole timber trade should go and take a look,” a very insistent timber importer phoned me this morning to say. “It is absolutely incredible and, while it looks good in the pictures, they can’t really do the design and sheer scale of it justice. I even persuaded my wife to go along and see it – and usually I can’t interest her in anything to do with timber in the slightest.”

All pictures courtesy of Dennis Gilbert/V&A Images, Victoria and Albert Museum and AHEC.