Technical triumphs

Early last year, a series of lowloaders with police escorts trundled along the narrow roads of Suffolk slowing traffic to a crawl. They were carrying the longest glulam beams ever used in England.

The great curving chunks of spruce, made by Lilleheden of Denmark, were up to 41.6m long and the biggest weighed 10 tonnes a piece. Their destination was the coastal town of Southwold, where they would form the roof beams in the new, ultra eco-friendly distribution warehouse of real ale brewery Adnams.

More recently, in London, Satellite Architects designed a new three-storey extension for an 18th century terraced house using an Ante-Holz glulam frame and prefabricated wall and floor cassettes based on a lattice of JJI-joists from James Jones. Other than steel straps attached to a wind-post embedded in the brickwork of the old building, the racking strength of the new structure is down entirely to the timberwork.

What these two very different buildings highlight is the increasing popularity of engineered timber among UK architects, builders and their clients, and the increasingly ambitious range of projects it’s being used for.

Of course, engineered timber is not new. The oldest glulam beams in the country are thought to date back to the mid-19th century. But today the variety of products is far greater; from all-timber I-joists and web beams, to glulam, LVL, cross-laminated solid panels and a range of laminated and finger-jointed products. New processes, technologies, resins and other components and materials have opened new levels of performance and versatility to enable engineered wood to be used in everything from individual joinery components to whole road bridges. For the ultimate evidence of the capabilities of the latest products, just visit the website of Austrian glulam specialist Wiehag (www.wiehag.at). There you will see a picture of the company's ultimate glulam beam strength test where it suspended several military tanks from one!

Appeal

What appeals about engineered timber products to architects and other specifiers, engineers and end users is that they combine the inherent natural aesthetics, properties and environmental merits of wood, with new technical capabilities and greater consistency and predictability of performance. They take wood into whole new areas of application.

All this sets the scene for the launch of a TTJ Award for Achievement in Engineered Timber. With the growing range of products coming into the market, the technical advances being made and the rising excitement and interest around the subject, we felt the time was right to recognise particularly significant developments.

The Award, sponsored by Osmose, is open to both individual products that take engineered wood to a new technical level and open up new market opportunities, and to particularly interesting, technically demanding or ground-breaking applications in joinery, manufacturing or construction.

• Entrants should send us the background to the development of the individual product or the rationale for using engineered wood in a building or joinery or other manufactured item.
• For products, please also provide a description of the development process, technical specification and information about the applications of the product.
• Information about the performance of the product in the field, and feedback from the market from specifiers or end users, if available, would also be helpful.
• For applications of engineered wood in construction, joinery or manufacturing, please provide details of the product or products used, how they have performed and the benefits they have provided for the building or finished manufactured or joinery item.
• Photographs of products and applications should also be provided, if possible.
• The deadline for entries is August 3 and they should be sent to Mike Jeffree, editor TTJ, Wilmington House, 2 Maidstone Road, Sidcup DA14 5HZ.

The Achievement in Engineered Timber Award will be judged by an independent panel. The presentation will be made by host and guest speaker Lord Sebastian Coe at the TTJ Awards 2007 on September 20 at The Park Lane Hotel, London.