Constant in a time of change

Summary
• Demand for technical information has pushed TRADA’s professional and corporate membership up by 140 this year.
• It has just published the fourth edition of its Timber Frame Construction book.
• Its Green Oak in Construction publication has been shortlisted for a prestigious RIBA award.

TRADA is proud to sponsor the Best Technical Information Support Award for 2008.

And the reason is simple. Even at a time when the construction industry is facing a marked slowdown in sales, our membership is holding up well. In the first five months of this year, almost 140 corporate and professional members have joined TRADA, the main driver for this being unlimited access to our unrivalled bank of technical information.

In the past year, as well as a comprehensive programme of new and revised Wood Information Sheets, we have produced a number of successful publications, including the fourth edition of Timber Frame Construction, long acclaimed as the definitive professional manual for timber frame designers and specifiers.

Awards shortlist

Particularly rewarding is the fact that Green Oak in Construction, celebrating the use of oak in modern structures and demonstrating excellence in practice, has been shortlisted for the 2008 RIBA Sir Robert McAlpine International Book Award for Construction. The annual RIBA Awards aim to recognise “exceptional writing that inspires greater interest and pleasure in the many and diverse aspects of architecture, construction and design”. To be selected is a credit to the expertise of the authors, to the production team and to TRADA’s commitment to providing high calibre information.

Another new publication is Timber and the Sustainable Home, based on interviews with architects and designers at the forefront of sustainable design and construction.

We also work with others to meet specific information needs. Two examples of this are the Manual for the design of timber building structures to Eurocode 5, a book and CD based on the European Standards for timber structural designs in the UK, published jointly with the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE); and the Choose & Use timber information sheets aimed at the general builder, launched in April in conjunction with wood for good.

TRADA recognises that information takes many forms. Our website remains a vital link with construction industry professionals, and receives around 40,000 visits every month, more than half from specifiers. We have recently developed a way for members to link from their corporate intranets directly into the TRADA website without the need for individual logins, giving members’ staff fast access to TRADA’s knowledge base. Last year we launched a new online information service to enable members and others to keep abreast of changes in regulations, codes and standards affecting timber.

Seminars

This has been supported by well-attended seminars around the country, aimed at senior directors and managers, to help them identify the threats and opportunities such changes can bring.

In April we launched ‘Recycling Historic Buildings’, set in a case study mill conversion in Halifax, and we have just staged another successful In Touch with Timber conference, homing in on the opportunities presented by the 2012 Olympics.

Later in the year, TRADA will again take a lead role in supporting and promoting the Timber Zone at Interbuild from October 26-30, at the NEC Birmingham, running a comprehensive seminar programme on topical issues. More than £17bn of live business projects were represented by visitors at the 2007 event and the TRADA seminars were often over-subscribed, again emphasising the power of information in today’s commercial world.

The Best Technical Information Support Award is open to any company supplying, using or specifying timber. The technical information may take a variety of forms, including: product literature; technical manuals; telephone helplines; websites; events.