On the one hand, the judges of this year’s Wood Awards have an enviable task. While their decision-making carries a weighty responsibility, it also allows them access to some stunning timber architecture, from public buildings and commercial premises, to private houses and projects that would normally be hidden from public view.
On the other hand, however, it’s an unenviable responsibility: to choose just a handful of commendations and winners from an impressive roll call of 120 entries is going to be a difficult task.
It’s a dilemma of which Wood Awards organiser Michael Buckley is all too aware – choosing the shortlist has been hard enough.
“In the private category there are half a dozen entries that it breaks my heart not to be in the shortlist,” he said. “There are some lovely small projects which are going to be very difficult to choose.”
However, such problems are not a complaint but a reflection of the growing use, and growing quality, of timber and joinery in construction and building interiors.
Mainstream
The increasing recognition of timber’s sustainability credentials is evident in the structural category, with Sainsbury and Asda’s choice of glulam for two new stores, while glulam is the focus again for the curving structural members of Sunderland’s new 50m indoor pool. It has been used again on a smaller scale in the Rock Village Community Hall in Cornwall.
Timber cladding is a popular choice for many of the private projects, including a herringbone pattern on a house in London, through to the four-storey West Park Student Residences in Dundee.
The Awards have also attracted a good number of projects that have been in the news recently – joinery at St Pancras international station, the Xstrata Tree Top walkway at Kew Gardens and Kevin McCloud’s house which featured in the recent Grand Designs Live exhibition.
Furniture entries
Mr Buckley is particularly heartened by the entries in the furniture category, which he described as “more refined”. “There’s some lovely furniture and I think it gives us a very good base to continue the furniture category,” he said.
He is also pleased with prospects for the new wood panels award, with about a quarter of entries eligible for the judges’ choice. “It’s a really good response and justifies our decision to introduce the award,” said Mr Buckley.
Pictured here are some of the entries. Entries that have made the shortlist will be revealed at 100% Detail at Earls Court on September 18. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at Carpenters’ Hall in October.