Foundations for a brighter future

Timber builders are not claiming they've never had it so good. They're suffering just like the masonry and steel frame competition. If anything, some are finding the going tougher. In the slump certain big contractors, they say, have returned to the brick and block they know best. It seems they believe it's cheaper for them, or easier to sell to consumers still steeped in the UK's masonry tradition. Timber frame's quick build benefits also aren't giving it such an edge in today's sluggish market.

At the same time, regardless of recession, the timber building sector has continued to develop, diversify, grow and put down deeper foundations in the specifier community and, arguably, with consumers.

Latest proof of this is the 2012 Wood Awards. Each year this competition for the use of timber in architecture, interiors and furniture seems to raise the bar. This yea r is no exception. There were more entries than ever - over 360 - and an even greater range of buildings and structures, from the small but perfectly formed, to the big spectaculars.

The competition clearly shows UK architects and designers catching up with their European and North American counterparts and really absorbing timber into their DNA.

The shortlist includes Nottingham's Victoria Leisure Centre, with its complex geometric roof, a technical feat in cross-laminated spruce, Douglas fir and beech. Just as stunning is the University of Exeter forum with its triangular panelled roofscape, staircases and interior fittings in oak and glulam.

At the other end of the scale are the Straw Bale Café, an eye-catching rectangle of glass, spruce, western red cedar and ply. And, of course, we have the Timber Wave, the 12mhigh lattice arch made in hundreds of pieces of laminated American red oak that really pushes the design and engineering boundaries and grabbed all the headlines at the London Design Festival last year. Then there are 26 other shortlisters, all demonstrating just how far UK timber building has come in recent years. Everything the Wood Awards says about wood's construction potential is borne out by the new edition of TTJ's sister title, Timber & Sustainable Building (T&SB). Projects featured include The Hive, Worcester's £60m new library, featuring a 'gold-clad' cross-laminated roof and European ash interior joinery.

We also see architects and builders further exploring the potential of structural insulated panels, including for the new multi-million pound Stonehenge visitors centre. And if you thought London's Bridport House and Murray Grove towers marked the high watermark for high-rise timber, think again. Another article looks at the 10-storey Forté Tower in Melbourne.

Strengthening longer-term prospects for the sector, the UK Timber Frame Association has not been hunkering down in the recession to await recovery either. As its chief executive Andrew Carpenter explains in T&SB, it has been pushing on in areas from fire safety, to training and CE marking compliance, "in readiness for the upturn".

If that upturn will be brought closer by the latest job lot of government measures to boost construction is a matter of industry debate. But when construction does climb back to its peak, the view from the summit for timber construction should be invigorating.