Wood Awards top prize goes to house made from cork
20 November 2019The Cork House in Berkshire has scooped the Gold Award in this year’s Wood Awards.
The project team collected the award at the Wood Awards Ceremony at Carpenters Hall, London on November 19.
The Cork House, designed by Matthew Barnett Howland with Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton, is built almost entirely from forest products.
Expanded cork bricks form the walls, while cross-laminated timber forms the base. Portuguese cork oak, New Zealand pine, Estonian spruce, American/Canadian Western red cedar, Austrian spruce and American white oak were used in the building.
The wood supplier was NFP Europe and joinery was by Whyte & Wood. Accoya modified wood was used in beams, doors, windows and external steps.
Stephen Corbett, chairman of the judges for the building awards section of the Wood Awards, described the winner as “pushing boundaries” by exploring the use of cork as a structural building form.
“It’s not wood as we think we know it, but the bark of a cork oak tree undeniably has to count for the Wood Awards,” he said. Other winners in the building awards section include:
• Commercial & Leisure category: Royal Opera House ‘Open Up’
• Education & Public Sector: Cambridge Central Mosque
• Interiors: Battersea Arts Centre
• Private: Cork House
• Small Project: MultiPly
• Structural Award: House in a Garden
