Timber frame figures highly in a major new exhibition on housing design at the Royal Institute of British Architects headquarters in London.
The Coming Homes exhibition is aimed at highlighting the UK’s urgent need for more new homes in the coming years (RIBA estimates 3.8 million will be needed in the 25 years). The sponsors of the event include Finnforest UK, Guildford Timber Frame and Channel 4 and designs on show are from a range of housing projects around the country, with the stress on cost, durability, ease and speed of construction and low environmental impact.
“Sustainability is now central to the work of architects and RIBA in housing design,” commented Paul Hyett in his exhibition opening address. “That means housing that takes the environment into account, but that provides choice, that is good to live in and affordable. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past in our housing stock.”
Among the housing projects on show which featured timber frame either exclusively or as an element of the construction were: Chorlton Park Apartments in Manchester, Raines Dairy in London, the St Mary’s Island project in Chatham, the Greenwich Millennium Village phase two, the New Hall development in Harlow, and assisted self-build housing in Tilbury.
A Finnforest spokesperson said that the company saw the three-month exhibition as a valuable way of communicating the benefits of timber products and timber frame to the UK construction community.
“It’s a great gateway for us to contact the architectural sector,” he said. “The launch of the exhibition alone attracted up to 400 people, both established practices and new up and coming young architects. We believe it will prove a great success.”
