With the abolition of the government’s Zero Carbon Homes policy and the recent closure of the Zero Carbon Hub, it’s possible that you’d think that Ecobuild’s prime mission in promoting eco building products and practices was in danger of becoming obsolete.
Add to that the fact that eco building is now mainstream and not a mystery just the preserve of a few specialists. However, after this year’s show at London’s ExCeL, organisers UBM were upbeat and said the three-day show had gone well. It did acknowledge that the landscape had changed in recent years.
Martin Hurn, event director at Ecobuild, said the built environment had “fundamentally changed” since Ecobuild launched 12 years ago.
“Government policy is at a crossroads but sustainability has become normalised,” he said.
“While we continue to maintain the eco-focus and promote sustainability standards with our partners across the industry, the smarter end of the market is taking a broader approach to sustainability, aiming to ensure buildings appeal to occupiers well into the future with improved building performance, design, efficiency, health and wellbeing benefits”.
This year’s Ecobuild had been repositioned to “reflect market priorities” after consultation with customers and stakeholders. New areas introduced were infrastructure, digital construction, smart technology and resource efficiency in the built environment.
“The industry is changing and we’re changing with it, ensuring our visitors come away with new ideas and working practices as well as new connections,” said Mr Hurn. The result, he said, had been the “buzziest” show for a number of years, with re-booking rates at record levels.
Leading architect Sadie Morgan, founding director of dRMM Architects, supported the show’s new direction.
“The good news is that sustainability now is embodied into so many parts of the building industry that it doesn’t make sense to have a show that’s just about it,” she said. “It makes sense to have a show that talks about the green agenda, but does so by highlighting and showcasing the construction industry.”
The official visitor figures were 33,319, with architects the biggest single group at 14%, while timber was cited as the top product of interest. The Ecobuild website had listed about 500 companies exhibiting one month before the show doors opened. The post-show statistics showed 750 exhibiting brands attended, which is around half the size of the show at its peak, but bigger is not always better. In fact, the concentration of the show on just one side of ExCeL and use of smaller aisles did appear to give the show an extra “buzz”, with less redundant space and a higher concentrated footfall.
British Timber modification
Sawmiller Vastern Timber had one of the slickest stands on display for the launch of its new Brimstone product – thermally-modified British ash, sycamore and poplar.
The Swindon-based company said Brimstone was the first timber product of its kind to use hardwood sourced exclusively in Britain. The wood is shipped to France where it is super-heated and transported back to the UK.
Dimensional stability and durability are the two main quoted attributes, along with a chocolate brown colour, with applications being external building and joinery projects. The product is a result of a collaboration between Vastern and organisations including the BRE (Building Research Establishment) and Grown in Britain.
“Thermal modification represents a real opportunity to create a demand for lesserused white hardwoods and potentially change the fortunes of British mixed woodlands,” said Tom Barnes, managing director of Vastern Timber.
Meanwhile, OSB and MDF were in the thick of things, with Medite SmartPly having probably the biggest installation at the show. DISCOVER, sponsored by Medite SmartPly, was the show social hub created by students from the Bartlett School of Architecture following a design competition and was made from both Medite MDF and SmartPly OSB in its construction.
The stand, which also provided the show’s central bar area, featured shortlisted entries from the prestigious BD Architect of the Year awards. It also displayed entries for the M&S sponsored Big Innovation Pitch 2016.
“What we set out to do in terms of our general promotion of the brand was a definite and distinct success,” said Stuart Devoil, Medite SmartPly marketing manager.
Trada reports Busier show
Timber research organisation TRADA has been a leading supporter of Ecobuild and this year it was very happy with the show. “We experienced much better footfall on our stand compared to previous years as a result of the show all being in one hall and the reduced space given over to solar energy,” said Rupert Scott, membership and marketing manager at TRADA.
“Logically this improvement was to be expected – and it was good to see that it actually worked.”
TRADA’s experts were on hand in the ‘Timber Interactive Learning Zone’, which featured many highlights included several new technical publications being launched, a timber surgery where people could ask their technical questions and a scaled up version of the winning entry in this year’s Timbmet Dan Kemp Memorial Pavilion competition. The latter is a timber design that enables cyclists to pull up to a picnic table – and remain on their bikes for a social picnic with friends. It was created by Oxford Brookes students Ioana Bucuroiu and Jester Abayari in the annual competition and formed the centrepiece of TRADA’s stand.
Both students were presented with their awards during the show by Nigel Cox, managing director of Timbmet.
Mr Scott reported good levels of TRADA membership enquiries and said visitors were keen to make use of the free technical surgery on offer and buy technical guidance books.
Decking system company exhibits
One new exhibitor to Ecobuild was Italybased iDecking.
The decking installation system producer and composite deck board supplier is targeting the UK with is ultra high-speed method of fixing timber and composite deck boards.
Croydon-based Wallbarn Ltd was appointed the UK distributor of the iDecking systems last October.
The Easy Click system (clips and aluminium bar system) for composite decking products, is rated as twice as fast to install boards compared to existing fixing methods, while the Easy Change system featuring a locking key operation is for solid timber decks.
iDecking, which only launched three years ago, also manufactures the Duro composite decking board made from rice husk.
The Structural Timber Association (STA) joined with the likes of CITB, NHBC, Saint-Gobain and Innovate UK as partners on the Zero Carbon Hub stand, which provided a platform for visitor to discover the latest updates and gain free specialist advice.
The STA also held two luncheons to connect building professionals in order to help them to learn, network and discover new ideas and innovative products.
A debate took place after each course of the lunch. Speakers debated “housing” and “business benefits of using structural timber”. The popularity of aluminium-clad timber windows was very apparent at Ecobuild, with the likes of Rationel, Velfac and Internorm and several others in attendance.
Architect zedFactory unveiled its “ZEDliving” affordable urban lifestyle solution which features homes requiring no land and with no energy bills or carbon footprint and reducing air pollution. A full size version of this timber microhouse was one of the centrepieces of this year’s Ecobuild.
