The event on October 25 drew an audience of around 60, including architects and representatives of housing associations, local authorities and timber businesses, among them Clifford Jones Timber and BSW Timber.
"It underlined that the use of home-grown timber is really starting to capture the imagination of the construction industry and confidence that it really is fit for purpose," said Dainis Dauksta of Woodknowledge Wales, one of the organisations behind the project.
The visitor centre was designed by architects Architype, which decided to go for a solid timber solution after seeing the generic German-developed Brettstapel dowelled board system in Austria. This led to the practice working with Woodknowledge Wales and Edinburgh Napier University to gauge the suitability of Welsh softwood for the build approach.
The end result was Dowellam, a variant of Brettstapel using a mix of Welsh Douglas fir and Sitka spruce.
A total of 120m3 of the material was used for the visitor centre, kilned by Pontrilas Timber, and cut into 100mm and 200mm lamella for wall and floor panels by Williams Homes, which also erected the finished building, fixing the softwood boards with birch dowels. Completed in the summer, it was clad in western red cedar.
Mr Dauksta said that the project allayed any doubts about the suitability of Welsh Sitka spruce for construction.
"Research has shown Wales has one of the most favourable climates for growing conifers in Europe and, in fact, Sitka spruce decreases with strength the further north it is grown," he said.
With 1 million m3 of softwood available from Welsh forests annually, he maintained that the Dowellam project and research into using home-grown material with other construction methods had sown the seeds for a "new industrial revoluton in Wales and new approach to our forestry".
Currently Dowellam in Welsh larch is also being considered for Burry Port School and fir for the Norwich Research Park Enterprise Centre at University of East Anglia.
