There is a complex story behind a single structural element in our new build Skills Hub at the New Model Institute of Technology & Engineering (NMITE).
At NMITE, our Centre for Timber Technology (CATT) is active in developing the supply chain and skills for a stronger structural timber sector in the UK. The onsite build was an opportunity to showcase that structural timber can be home-grown.
Together with our architects Arbor and contractors Giraffe Engineering, we replaced a planned imported timber beam with our UK hybrid glulam beam combining softwood and hardwood. The spruce and ash used was harvested, processed and installed all within the UK. The emphasis was to demonstrate what was feasible using home-grown resource by optimising specification and incorporating an innovative approach. A small step that reflected our values and our teaching mission, it would also be an excellent way to tackle the barriers against installing structural timber in the UK, so we can start to make the system work better.
What happened when we swapped imported timber for home-grown was that we had to undertake bespoke testing. Full-scale bending and glue-line shear tests were required to demonstrate adequate performance. We also had to deal with perceived risk. Structural timber is still considered a risk, even in the smallest applications, so deviating from the specified glulam beam required additional documentation.
Why this matters beyond NMITE is because our challenges were not unique and showed that there is more to be done to make home-grown structural timber a realistic option.
To get such innovative products used requires an effort throughout the supply chain. Often the methods of manufacture are geographically fragmented and so more resource intensive. There is also a need to demonstrate the correct levels of quality assurances, necessitating more rigour and on occasion bespoke testing. All of this can make showcasing innovation cost prohibitive. However, showcasing is critical to getting over the barriers to uptake allowing products to be commercialised and ideally scaled up to a point where they can be competitive.
Our new construction management students will graduate into a construction sector in transition between conventional certainty and innovation required for net zero construction. They need to understand that change is not frictionless, so sharing the story of the beam will be one of their first learning activities this September. They need to know that even small substitutions raise design, regulatory, and cultural challenges, but this is exactly the lesson they need to learn early if they are to be the pathfinders for the increased use of structural timber in the UK. All great lessons which can be taken from something as “simple” as a beam.
By wrestling with these questions in our own buildings, we live the reality we ask students to study, and it becomes real choice for them. The Skills Hub beam is evidence that innovation in construction is rarely a leap forward. More often, it is incremental, negotiated, and contested, with the intricacies figured out one beam at a time.
