Wood Awards 2025 winners announced - Timber Trades Journal

The Urban Nature Project at the Natural History Museum, by Feilden Fowles. Photo: Jim Stephenson

Sensitively integrating two new buildings within the re-landscaped gardens of the Natural History Museum, the Urban Nature Project, led by Feilden Fowles, is a triumph 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 celebrating the capture of 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 UK-grown 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.

The Wood Awards building judges, a team of world-leading professionals led by Jim Greaves of Hopkins Architects, visited all 20 buildings shortlisted in the Wood Awards before deciding the winner, in one of the UK’s most rigorous assessments for any competition.

“The UK’s long and proud tradition of timber construction is powerfully reflected in this year’s Gold Award winner,” said David Hopkins, CEO of Timber Development UK (lead organisers of the Wood Awards).

“It is a project that brings our natural heritage – sustainable forestry, healthy woodlands and exceptional craftsmanship – into the heart of our national heritage in an outstanding public and educational setting.

“I would like to congratulate the entire team behind the Urban Nature Project and applaud all the entrants to this year’s Wood Awards, who collectively show how timber can drive the transition to a low-carbon built environment while delivering places of remarkable beauty.”

Other winners on the night were: