The Gold Award winner of the 2019 Wood Awards has been hailed by one of the judges, Ruth Slavid as “a really exciting project – not just a house, it is also a piece of research”.
The house in question, The Cork House, which also won the Private category, is build almost entirely from cork and timber. Monolithic walls and corbelled roof pyramids are built with load bearing expanded cork made from the bark of the cork oak tree, a by-product from the wine bottle stopper industry. The house, which is adorned with five skylight-topped ziggurats, is a prefabricated kit of parts. Some 1,268 blocks of expanded cork were CNC-machined off-site and then assembled on-site by hand without the use of mortar or glue.
A CLT floor platform, finished with oak floorboards, rests on Accoya beams supported on steel screw piles. Accoya is also used for the bespoke doors, windows and external steps. Western red cedar weatherboarding is used on the roof and rear façade. All internal built-in joinery and loose furniture is made from spruce.
Wood species used included Portuguese cork oak, New Zealand pine, Estonian spruce, American/Canadian western red cedar, Austrian spruce and American white oak. NFP Europe supplied the wood and the joinery was made by Whyte & Wood and Nic Rhode Furniture (internal joinery).
A house of an entirely different nature – the Royal Opera House – won the Commercial & Leisure category. Judges were impressed by how the new design reads as a complete building “yet seamlessly connects” with the main areas of the existing space.
Improved access and transparency, a completely new Linbury Theatre and new foyers, terraces, cafes, bars, restaurant and retail facilities extend the building’s life outside of performance hours.
At entrance level, subtle timber elements inlaid in the stone floor offer a warm welcome. Descending into the double-height Linbury Theatre foyer, the atmosphere becomes more intimate and theatrical as exquisitely book matched veneer surfaces are complemented by elegant linear grids of timber batons and solid wood parquet. The Linbury Theatre is entirely clad in American black walnut, inspired by the rich cherry cladding in the main 1858 Opera House auditorium. Lights, acoustic insulation and sound equipment are integrated within the timber.
The wood was supplied by Missouri Walnut LLC and the veneer by Reliance Veneer Co Ltd. The joinery was by Birmingham Veneers Ltd, TT Gillard and Thornell Veneers Ltd.
Cambridge Central Mosque was selected as the Education & Public Sector winner, with judge David Morley saying, “This building is an exemplar of how wood can enable a structure to become the primary representational element of a building.” He added that “this is a hard project to beat”.
The first purpose-built mosque in Cambridge is inspired by an image of the garden of paradise – with its water fountain symbolising the source of all life. Timber was chosen for its natural, warm and calming qualities. The expressed vaulted structure is glulam, while the surrounding wall and roof structure is CLT.
The guiding geometry of the building is The Breath of the Compassionate, a historic Islamic pattern. Repeating star octagons are converted into a continuous structural pattern and projected onto the three-dimensional fan vaulting form. Alternate octagons are converted to 30 structural columns or ‘trunks’. Some 2,746 pieces form the vaulted structure and wherever possible metal connectors have been replaced with half lap joints for continuity of timber grain.
The wood species used were European spruce, oak and mahogany and were supplied by Mayr-Melnhof Holz Reuthe. The timber frame engineer and installer was Blumer Lehmann and joinery was by The Deluxe Group.
The Interiors winner was Battersea Arts Centre, of which head buildings judge Stephen Corbett said: “The design philosophy, imagination, originality, and the meticulous modelling, prototyping and execution made this stand out as a project of high quality.”
The original decorative plaster barrel vaulted ceiling of the 1890s Grade II listed building was destroyed by fire in 2015. Rather than replicating the lost ceiling, a contemporary plywood lattice ceiling was conceived. The new ceiling follows the curvature of the original and echoes the motifs in the plasterwork. It is much more porous and suitable for a modern theatre’s requirements.
The new ceiling is constructed of three layers of 18mm-thick birch-faced poplar plywood. Many apertures provide multiple rigging and lighting positions from the technical walkway built into the roof space above. Hidden banners within the roof space provide a variety of acoustic options.
The wood supplier was IBL, while the lattice ceiling joinery manufacturer was Joinery Fixing and Finishing Ltd.
MultiPly, the Small Project winner, is the first structure made from UK-manufactured CLT. The judges praised its simple design that communicates modularity and repetition.
MultiPly is a carbon neutral engineered timber pavilion, made from American tulipwood supplied by Glenalmond Timber and manufactured into CLT at the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre.
The vertical maze of stacked modules and staircases intertwine, inviting people to explore the use of wood in architecture and reflect on how we build our homes and cities. MultiPly demonstrates how engineered timber structures can be reconfigured, reused, repurposed and ultimately recycled. The pavilion has been shown in three locations, each iteration taking a different form.
MultiPly provided an opportunity to push the boundaries of CLT construction. Like a piece of flat-packed furniture, it arrives as a kit of parts and can be assembled in under a week.
The 2019 Structural Award winner was House in a Garden, which judge Nathan Wheatley described as “an exceptional structural form of elegant and slender timber ribs, a structural arrangement which is exciting, efficient and responds perfectly to the study of natural light”.
Replacing a dilapidated bungalow built in the 1960s in the garden of an 1840s villa, the house is on ground and two basement floors surrounded by gardens, light wells and skylights. The ground floor, pavilionlike structure floats, creating distant views through gaps in the city skyline.
Wood is used throughout the project: structurally for the roof; as wall, floor and ceiling linings; and for the floating staircase. The glulam structure is unique in terms of the double curvature and the slender section sizes. The roof curves into an oculus. Wood-lined ‘internal’ spaces (living rooms and bedrooms) are juxtaposed with marble-lined ‘external’ spaces (wet areas, pools and courtyards).
Species include European spruce, birch and Douglas fir. Züblin Timber supplied the wood for the roof and made the roof structure, while Dinesen supplied wood for the floors, walls, ceilings and stairs.
Furniture winners
The Furniture and Product winners were Alison Crowther’s The Kissing Benches, and David Gates’s Littoral Chances 1&2 in the Bespoke category; and Ian McChesney’s Bench in the Production category.
Elissa Brunato’s Bio Iridescent Sequin won her the Student Designer award (and followed her 2019 TTJ Award for Innovation), while the Student Designer People’s Choice award went to Anton Mikkonen for Udon Stool.
