In 2005 a Best Use of British Timber category was added to the annual Wood Awards.
The award that year went to McCurdy & Co’s Pilton Barn in Somerset, but this year the judges agreed overwhelmingly that the Green Oak Carpentry Company had achieved so many fine projects in British wood, that it was worthy of the award in its own right – “an exceptional achievement”, according to Wood Awards organiser Michael Buckley.
Green Oak Carpentry’s “consistent high quality work in British wood” had already been witnessed in projects such as the Weald & Downland Gridshell, but the two particular projects using mainly or exclusively British timber that caught the judges’ eyes in this year’s Wood Awards were the Savill Building (which won the Gold, the Commercial & Public Access and the Structural Awards) and Chithurst Buddhist Monastery meditation hall (shortlisted for the Structural Award). Both projects used timber sourced from their own woodlands (European larch and English oak from Windsor Great Park for the Savill Building and English oak and sweet chestnut for the monastery) following guidance from Green Oak Carpentry which selected standing timber, designing the structures around the most suitable resources available.
“The judges described the company as a ‘champion’ of British timber,” said design and project manager Steve Corbett. “If by this they mean passionate advocates for the use of this valuable and under-used resource, then we accept the award with pride on behalf of all those who share this aim.”
