Timber in iconic constructions, furniture and objet d’art was celebrated once again at the Wood Awards 2025, with the Urban Nature Project at the Natural History Museum scooping the Gold Award and New Wave House triumphing in not one, but two categories – Sustainability and Commercial.
Sensitively integrating two new buildings within the relandscaped gardens of the Natural History Museum, the Urban Nature Project, led by Feilden Fowles, is a tour de force of sustainable, landscape-led development.
Five acres of under-used garden have been transformed into an oasis of urban nature, telling the story of change on our planet over time. Within this setting are two timber and stone buildings: the Garden Kitchen, a visitor café, and the Nature Activity Centre, providing space for youth learning activities and scientific research.
Combining a Douglas fir glulam timber frame with a load-bearing masonry façade, the café features a stepped roof with a glazed lantern and openable panels for natural ventilation. The education pavilion takes a low barn-like form with long elevations. Its asymmetric pitched roof – formed from solid Douglas fir and clad with western red cedar shingles – projects dramatically to provide sheltered seating space, as well as capturing rainwater. Both spaces are characterised by carefully detailed, efficient timber structures that are expressed throughout.
These pioneering, low energy buildings have been designed to have a positive impact on the environment and to inspire greater connection with nature. By using locally sourced, low impact materials – including UKgrown Douglas fir and British limestone – the Urban Nature Project is an exemplar of low embodied carbon construction that supports local supply chains and vernacular craft.
The Urban Nature Project timber structures were designed by Feilden Fowles in collaboration with specialist timber design and subcontractor Xylotek, and structural engineering by engineers HRW. They were built by Walter Lilly, with joinery from SP Joinery and wood supplied by East Brothers Ltd and Marley. The landscape architects for the project were J&L Gibbons, with the multi-disciplinary design team including Max Fordham and Gitta Gschwendtner.
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