It was Tony Blair who coined the phrase “Education, education, education” and this sums up the American Hardwood Export Council‘s current marketing campaign. Specifically, AHEC has sought to satisfy the timber “information hunger” suffered by architects, engineers and other design professionals through design competitions, seminars, exhibitions and technical publications. The importance of this was underlined again at the latest IWSc conference where speakers stressed their need for technical information.
Encouraging architects to listen to their peers often further stimulates their inspiration. With this in mind, AHEC has organised seminars in which high profile speakers, who use wood to great effect, explain their design principles. During the past year over 800 European architects have attended seminars in Berlin, Paris and London. And the evaluation questionnaires confirmed that a greater number of architects are being won over to the concept of considering using American hardwood. After the Berlin seminar, from the 230 questionnaires returned (51% of those attending), 50% said they attended to hear about the design options afforded by American hardwoods, while 75% said they were interested in the use of wood in design.
The new AHEC exhibition stand, unveiled at 100% Detail this year, aims to stimulate the senses of sight and touch. It is open, to encourage people to step onto the stand, with a neutral black background from which spectators can view graphics of projects in which internationally renowned architects have used American hardwoods to great effect. The provision of pull-out drawers displaying samples allows visitors to touch the various species, while relevant publications are distributed.
AHEC is also among the organisations supporting that very successful showcase for timber, the Wood Awards. For the American hardwood industry, this has been a very successful initiative, with a range of its timber featuring in winning entries.
This year greater emphasis was given to the annual conference of the Institute of Wood Science where AHEC secured Professor Arturo Dell’Acqua Bellavitis, an influential designer from Milan, as a speaker. He specialises in bringing new life to buildings through interior design and the modern use of wood. The appearance of such speakers encourages other architects to attend as they are always on the lookout for fresh ideas.
Demand by construction professionals for more technical information enabling them to use wood in an economical and more effective manner was highlighted by Dr Peter Bonfield of the BRE during his address to the IWSc. Recently, AHEC broke new ground by publishing its technical guide Structural Design in American Hardwoods. Following the BRE‘s testing of four American temperate hardwoods (white oak, red oak, ash and tulipwood), engineering values have now been determined enabling them to be used in load-bearing applications within the EU. This satisfies specifiers’ desire to combine both structural performance with aesthetic design. Richard Harris of Buro Happold said it would have been “enormously helpful” to have had the guide in the 1980s for the challenging design for the US white oak roof of the Queen’s Building at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The publication has been distributed to all members of the Institution of Structural Engineers.
The IWSc’s last two annual conferences have shown the closer co-operation needed between designers and the wood markets, with architects in particular asking for easy access to even more technical information. This helps the specifier as often contractor’s are reluctant to work with a material they traditionally see as problematical. This aspect needs to be urgently addressed by the wood industry as a whole.
AHEC will continue its efforts to provide specifiers with information in an easily digestible form. This information flow needs to be extended to contractors, especially those in small- to medium-sized enterprises. Closer co-operation is also required between those that provide ancillary services, such as preservative treatments and finishes, and end users. Once the whole chain is working together on education, the reluctance among the contracting fraternity will be overcome.
Support for education initiatives continues, with wood. for good, TRADA and AHEC, to name just three organisations, running high profile seminars. This creates a market pull that stimulates the supply sector. Numerous com-panies have, in turn, set up their own product knowledge training schemes for contractors.
