Award goes to industry/academic venture

Nottingham University won the first Timber at Ecobuild Award, with support from the Saint-Gobain group, including International Timber and engineered timber specialist Pasquill.

The Award was launched by TTJ and sister title Timber & Sustainable Building to recognise the growing presence of timber and wood products at the show and exhibitors who promoted and presented them to best effect.

“Wood has steadily increased the impact it’s had on the show and we thought the time was ripe to celebrate this relationship,” said TTJ editor Mike Jeffree.

The Award judges were SCA Timber Supply PR Camilla Hair, T Brewer & Co co-director Keith Fryer, and marketing and advertising consultant Peter Travis.

They described the winning stand as a “pivotal display for timber and wood products” and the partnership it represented between business and academia as inspirational. It comprised H.O.U.S.E., an eco-home designed and built by student architects and engineers as the University’s entry in the international Solar Decathlon contest, and was developed with technical and materials support from the Saint-Gobain companies.

The two highly commended exhibitors were Steico AG and English Woodlands Timber.

The latter’s stand was described as “a real footfall stopper”.

“It demonstrated how effectively the Timber Works 3m² stand shell scheme can work and how a smaller timber business can exploit their points of difference from larger competitors,” said the judges.

The Steico stand was “very clear and unambiguous in what it set out to say”.

“It presented building solutions that may be new to many in the UK market, but instantly made visitors comfortable with the product, a feeling reinforced by knowledgeable, helpful staff.”