This question was the starting point of this year’s Make Good Symposium at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
The theme took its cue from the Make Good display at the V&A, dRMM: Building from Forests, built with local hardwood.This installation was a key output of Building from England’s Woodlands; a three-year research project led by NMITE (New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering) in Hereford and funded by Forestry England in their ambition to stimulate greater demand for locally grown timber.Here we explore the case the display makes for designing with local timber to support diverse woodlands.
The UK currently depends on overseas imports to meet approximately 80% of timber demand (Timber Development UK (2026) UK timber in construction), following a simultaneous increase in overall demand, and reduction in competitive homegrown supply. 51% of the stocked conifer area in Great Britain comprises a single species, Sitka spruce, from which a climate resilient industry must diversify. These statistics represent substantial challenges to resilience in domestic production; however, our research has found that the UK is well placed to broaden and enhance homegrown supply due the relative (re)nascence of the timber construction industry and the existing make up of our woodlands.
More than half of the UK’s stocked woodlands are already mixed broadleaf species, and with more woodland creation and diverse planting, hardwood stocks are set to increase (Forestry Commission (2014) 50-year forecast of hardwood timber availability. National Forest Inventory Statistical Analysis Report). Due to low demand for UK-grown hardwoods, only a limited proportion is harvested (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (2025) Timber in construction roadmap 2025); even less enters long-life harvested wood products that act as important carbon stores. Our task as designers is to respond to this diversification and help stimulate demand to sustain productive, mixed-species woodlands.
The characteristics of these species are relatively unknown, but Edinburgh Napier University’s Wood Science Laboratory is developing a significant dataset for the mechanical properties of English hardwoods. This data serves as the basis for a series of ‘new recipes’ for engineered wood products, as well as some entirely new ones, all of which focus on the use of hardwoods to enhance the existing supply of softwoods. These ranged from the strategic introduction of hardwood studs into timber frames to lightweight experimental prototypes.
Further experimentation revealed that with the introduction of hardwood at the top and bottom layers of a beam (Glue Laminated Timber) or slab (Cross Laminated Timber) a section size reduction of 10-15% can be achieved. In addition, the research proposes a radical reconsideration of post and beam softwood structures; a hardwood ‘knuckle,’ developed by BE-ST (Built Environment – Smarter Transformation) in collaboration with Ecosystems Technologies, is introduced to respond to moment stresses. Lastly, the display puts forward an ambitious new product which challenges CLT’s alternative acronym ‘Contains Lots of Timber’ in the development of a thin cross laminated timber barrel vault designed to replace heavyweight floor or roof structures.
Armed with these innovations, all incorporated into the Make Good display, we are excited to meet the demands of an industry duty-bound to employ regenerative, bio-regional solutions. We see the relative modesty of the UK’s timber industry not as a barrier, but an opportunity to be agile, focus on innovation and build a truly resilient system.
The dRMM: Building from Forests display at the V&A can be viewed until 30th October 2025: https://drmmstudio.com/project/va-make-good-building-from-forests/
