Anyone casting aspersions about timber frame should visit Skansen in Stockholm. This open-air museum was created by bewhiskered 19th century anthropologist Arthur Hazelius who toured Sweden ‘collecting’ everything from a church to a cowshed and rebuilt them in the capital. Most of the 150 buildings are timber, some are over 300 years old and all are in very good nick.
The Traditional Housing Bureau, a cement and concrete lobby group, could get a reality check at Skansen. Confronting timber frame’s recent growth in England and Wales, it has decided the best form of market-share defence is attack. It queries quality standards in the sector and alleges the public trusts ‘traditional’ brick and block (and, by implication, not timber frame). The THB also says that government is only pushing system-building (where timber frame does so well) as a last resort due to a lack of skilled brickies.
In fact, growing resources are being devoted to timber frame quality assurance and developers, like Bellway – plus self-builders – are clearly plumping for it on performance grounds as well as convenience. As demand in Scotland shows, the public also trusts timber frame if they’re given the facts.
Worryingly, the Builders Merchants Federation backs the THB, fearing its members will be hit by timber frame firms selling direct to builders. Some merchants may have this concern, but knocking copy is not the answer: it will just lead to a war of words, devaluing the whole market. Instead, as one urged at the National Merchant Buying Society conference, merchants should ‘get closer to the timber frame industry and find ways of supplying it’.
There’s room in the UK for more than one building approach and, given its centuries of performance, timber frame should be among them.
