Another link in the growing relationship between architects and the timber industry was forged at the Institute of Wood Science (IWSc) annual conference in Newcastle last week.
More than 120 delegates were drawn by speakers from both sectors whose aim was to present the case for wood solutions – both in theory and in practice.
Among the presenters were representatives from two of Europe’s leading architectural practices – Italy’s Renzo Piano Building Workshop and the UK’s Edward Cullinan Architects. The presentations were divided into three sections – Timber from Well Managed Forests, Timber in Practice and Timber Solutions Case Studies.
Opening proceedings, IWSc president Jim Coulson said: “The whole theme is concentrating on things you can do with timber in a technical sense, and looking at innovations and ideas and ways of solving complex structural problems.”
Talking about the IWSc he said: “We are not just ivory tower boffins, but practical people in the real world.”
He said the IWSc would soon be 50 years old and continued: “We are entering a renaissance and have found our way again, particularly with education and training.”
The programme started with presentations on Timber from Well Managed Forests by Rupert Oliver, managing editor of hardwoods.com, and Simon Fineman, group chief executive of Timbmet Group Ltd. The session was chaired by Jeremy Wall, principal officer of the Forest Based Industries Unit, DG Enterprises, European Commission.
Mr Oliver said it was almost 10 years to the day since the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was founded and added: “It seems appropriate to reflect on forest certification’s achievements and failures – and to consider where it is going.”
He said forest certification had made significant progress in recent years but major obstacles to the fulfilment of its full potential remained.
Mr Oliver took delegates through the development of forest certification – including the creation of the American Forest and Paper Association‘s Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) programme launched in October 1994 and the Pan European Forest Certification (PEFC) scheme launched in 1999.
The world area of certified forest, he said, had expanded from little more than 20 million ha at the beginning of 2000 to around 150 million ha. And, he added, as this figure had risen, so too had the potential supply of certified forest products.
But, he said, the important phrase was “potential supply”. “So far only a tiny fraction of wood supplied from certified forests is traded as certified product. Indeed supplies are so limited that even the most committed purchasing companies often struggle to obtain sufficient volume.”
He outlined four obstacles to certified product supply – the challenges and costs associated with chain of custody verification; the mismatch between available supply and demand for labelled products; that demand for labelled products remained concentrated within the retailing sectors of a limited number of western countries; and the diversity of forest certification schemes which increased labelling costs and undermined marketing value.
Mr Oliver detailed the efforts being made to overcome obstacles, including developments with regard to chain of custody which could provide solutions in the certification of tropical forests.
Slim prospects
However, the prospects of mutual recognition between forest certification bodies were very slim, he said. The forest sector may have to live with a diversity of competing schemes for the foreseeable future although there were structures in place to help the market cope – for instance the Timber Trade Federation‘s Environmental Timber Purchasing Policy.
Simon Fineman’s presentation focused on the day-to-day realities of a timber importer and distributor. Timbmet, he said, spent tens of thousands of pounds a year on its environmental department – but, he added: “The outcome still falls far short of my own ambitions, never mind the expectations of the NGOs.”
He said the timber industry was in the middle of a political vacuum with no clear guidance from government.
Mr Fineman cited a case where a local authority said it would only buy FSC-certified timber but when he checked he found it was buying uncertified timber and, in fact, it would only buy on price.
“There was a complete failure of a policy decision taken at the top filtering through to those doing timber business. I would say central government is no less able to communicate that message right the way through the chain.”
And, said Mr Fineman, most of Timbmet’s customers had no idea of the procedures required to ensure they bought from sustainable sources.
He said that African states found it particularly difficult to embrace the environmental debate and NGOs had been slow to realise
the difficulties of the certification issue there.
“Some people might ask why, if Africa is not prepared to meet standards, the UK should buy its timber,” Mr Fineman said. “On this particular question I hold a passionate view. Turning our back on African timber is criminal.”
Moral responsibility
He said there was a strong moral responsibility to work with African suppliers to solve the problems.
“Certification won’t work without education,” he went on, “and at the moment the level of education is very, very poor. Timbmet is determined to try and up the level of education but the whole industry has to play a role in that.”
Mr Fineman said price was the driving force in the debate and added: “There is no way this will move on unless people are prepared to pay more for a certified product and no way producers will go down the certification road without passing on the cost.
“We need help from government; we need help from suppliers, customers and NGOs, but most of all we need the help of all stakeholders who are willing to admit that managing production forests is a frightfully complex problem with no easy – or global ‘one size fits all’ – solution.”
Product evolution
The Timber in Practice session was chaired by Professor Ban Seng Choo, director of the Centre for Timber Engineering at Napier University.
Duncan Mayes, project manager at Stora Enso Timber, spoke about two products, ThermoWood and WoodHeart, and how they have evolved.
The very high temperatures at which ThermoWood is treated give it, among other things, excellent stability and improved biological durability. It could be used both internally and externally in applications such as sauna products, flooring, exterior wall cladding and decking.
WoodHeart, however, relied on its natural durability. Logs with optimum amounts of heartwood were selected using tomographic technology and tailor made dimensions could be sawn to order.
Mr Mayes said heartwood offered many advantages to joinery, including reduced moisture uptake and reduced performance variation.
Designs and solutions
Gordon Cowley, managing director of Cowley Structural Timberwork Ltd, spoke on wood engineering – design and solutions.
Illustrating his presentation with fantastic images of some of the work his company has done, he told delegates that these were exciting times for structural timber, with glulam the industry mainstay.
Another important part of the toolkit, he said, was Kerto LVL, which enabled the principles of stressed skin panels to be achieved effectively. “It is the new material for fabricators and designers as it is so versatile.”
Mr Cowley said there were more and more situations where steel was being glued to timber and added: “I think we will see more structural insulated panels in the future with people doing fancy shapes. There is a lot of interest in shell type structures.”
The final session, chaired by Dr Mark Swenarton of Architecture Today was billed as Timber Solutions Case Studies. Dr Swenarton said timber had come to the fore as one of the materials of choice for architects and that the two architectural practices making presentations had perhaps more than any been responsible for developing the use of timber. “We are extremely fortunate to have their representatives here. These firms are at the cutting edge in the development of timber right across Europe.”
Massimio Alvisi of Renzo Piano Building Workshop talked delegates through the design and build of The Rome Auditorium which he described as the first important building in the city for 60 years.
The structure consists of three shapes, one seating 700 people, one seating 1,200 and the third seating 2,700. It also features a piazza for outside music which can hold 3,000 people.
Roddy Langmuir, a partner at Edward Cullinan Architects, which was involved in the Weald and Downland Museum’s Gridshell, said the possibilities of timber were driven by sustainability.
He said his practice had “a love affair with the magic of timber” but had found the opportunities to apply it in public work had been limited.
He illustrated a number of timber developments around the world and asked: “Why are we so against timber in the UK?”
The possibilities for timber and the fact that new things were being discovered all the time was exciting, he said, adding that Gordon Cowley was regarded as a bit like a magician by architects because of his company’s ability to come up with solutions.
