You can’t help but see the irony in the choice of Sheffield, the historic centre for the development and manufacture of steel, as the location for Time for Timber 2003.

Here, looming over the city’s Millennium Galleries, the location for this year’s conference, is the Sheffield Winter Garden – a RIBA-award winning 22m-high larch glulam arched conservatory-style structure. It is a dramatic and successful building – just the sort of thing Time for Timber seeks to encourage.

The conference is designed as a national forum for construction professionals wanting to use timber as a modern construction material and this year posed the question, “when is the use of wood appropriate?”

This year’s event, sponsored by wood. for good and structural engineer Buro Happold, attracted nearly 100 people, including many architects and specifiers.

Delegates were shown internationally-acclaimed projects and heard about timber’s advantages, including its low embodied energy, sustainability, its excellent strength-to-weight ratio and its strong link to structures in nature.

Christian Schittich, editor-in-chief of Germany-based Detail magazine, explained that timber is now a material of “contrasts” – both traditional and modern; craftsman and industrial; used in structural applications and cladding; and in rural and urban situations.

Besides stone, he said, wood is the oldest building material and it relates well with the landscape.

Mr Schittich presented some inspiring examples of timber architecture, including celebrated architect Renzo Piano’s cultural centre in New Caledonia, a student hostel in Portugal where timber cladding has been used to transform a concrete building, and projects in Japan – a country Mr Schittich described as having a very sophisticated timber architecture.

Modern vernacular

He also believes timber is a material for a modern vernacular. “The wooden box has become a symbol of a new timber architecture, of which there have been some outstanding examples recently, especially in Austria and Switzerland.”

He explained that timber fits well with nearly every building material, especially with glass, where the combination of its “cold” look together with the warmth of wood is particularly effective.

Peter Clegg, of RIBA award-winning architect Feilden, Clegg, Bradley Architects, enthused about the renewable nature of wood, its superior stiffness compared to steel and its reliability in fire.

But he appealed for more domestic wood to be planted and used. “We need to increase demand for a truly sustainable building material,” he said.

Alluding to the old Guinness advert, he added: “Timber is a beautiful material; it smells good, feels good, looks good and it does you good.”

Two examples of his practice’s work are the Earth Centre, featuring Scottish roundwood larch poles and green oak cladding, and the Woodland Enterprise Centre in East Sussex, which uses finger-jointed chestnut, glulam roof sections and OSB cladding.

On the sawmilling side, Tom Bruce-Jones, director at James Jones & Sons Ltd, provided evidence that large volumes of UK timber are expected to become available during the next 50 years – the so-called “wall of wood”.

In light of this, he said, the sawmilling industry needs to improve its production capacity and secure markets to the end user.

James Jones has already spent £40m in capital expenditure over the past 20 years and production this year will break through 300,000m3, on a single shift (TTJ November 1/8). Overall, UK annual home-grown production is currently about two million m3.

Mr Bruce-Jones said it was important to improve efficiency and create value-added and fit-for-purpose products.

The company’s Forres plant now features two I-joist manufacturing lines and the UK’s first finger-jointing line, aiming to take advantage of the growing demand for engineered timber products.

Its research and development projects include developing new markets for Sitka spruce and accessing the timber frame sector.

“We need to drive home that UK timber as a C16 grade can be used in timber frame housing,” said Mr Bruce-Jones.

The important role architects and specifiers can play in helping create demand for timber was emphasised by Forestry Commission director-general David Bills.

He said: “It’s a very logical decision to specify timber and is important to support the sustainable system that is emerging within forestry in the UK.”

PEFC endorsement

Mr Bills said that the Forest Stewardship Council‘s certification scheme was not the only test that showed wood was well managed. He endorsed the Pan European Forest Certification system and encouraged architects to take responsibility in timber sourcing as wood “does not have to bear a label to be sustainable”.

He said the FSC estimates that 70% of the UK’s commercial woodland is now certified.

On mainland Europe, some exciting work is being done with timber. French architect Jean-Luc Sandoz showed delegates a range of engineered timber products he has developed, including a timber floor system which competes directly with pre-cast hollowcore concrete planks for small to medium spans.

The “O’Portune” prefabricated slabs were used to construct the offshore lake platform supporting pavilions for Swiss EXPO 2002.

Michael Keller, of Germany-based engineered timber construction company MERK, showed examples of “the structural beauty of timber” including the Expo Roof at Hannover.

Incredibly, he claimed 89% of timber used for building in Germany is not treated at all. He said the secret in its performance was in the detailing.

Back on the UK scene, Ian Sharrat, co-founder of Pringle Richards Sharrat Architects, said the use of timber was difficult to resist on the Sheffield Winter Garden project.The frame was erected ahead of schedule in 10 weeks, involving just seven people. “The scale is spectacular and awesome,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bill Addis of Buro Happold’s engineering sustainability group said timber scores well as a sustainable construction material, due to its low embodied energy. And using green untreated timber makes it even more environmentally friendly.

But he added: “To design a building with a reduced environmental impact, concentration must be given to all elements of the building design.”

Richard Harris, of Buro Happold and chairman of the Time for Timber organising committee, said the conference reinforces the fact that the UK is now a timber producing country “which opens new possibilities for people who aspire to build and design with timber”.

He added: “If we do not aspire to use the locally grown timber in the best way it will be made into fence posts. It’s a waste if we do not add value.”