Generally jealousy isn’t a feeling to be welcomed, but when it comes to the Wood Awards shortlist, we can make an exception. Green-eyed envy was certainly the initial thing I felt when we had a preview of entries in the private house and furniture categories. The homes make spectacular use of every timber species and combination of solid wood and sheet material imaginable. Some focus on structural applications, others on timber’s use in interiors – some both.
The furniture category, launched this year, has also attracted some masterpieces of design, blending solid timber, sheet materials, veneer and a range of other complimentary materials. As with the houses, the still greater achievement is that the designers and craftspeople behind the entries have also managed to make their creations look easy to live with. In fact, a few of them would look just right in our front room.
The shortlisted entries in the other Wood Awards categories are also impressive, covering applications of timber and wood products in everything from awe-inspiring public buildings, to intimate, intricate restoration and conservation projects.
Each year this annual competition for the use of timber in construction and interiors goes from strength to strength, both in the standard of the entries and their number, with a record total of 206 this time. As the envy proves, it’s a great shop window for this industry, showing wood in all its guises being used by architects, designers, builders and manufacturers in a growing range of applications with ever more ambition and confidence.
We can’t actually show you the shortlisted projects in this edition as we’re sworn to secrecy until the official unveiling on September 21 at the 100% Detail exhibition in London. But, if you can’t make the show, you can see all the entries in an exclusive feature in our sister title Timber Building published the same day, and we’ll also show a selection in the next edition of TTJ – so prepare for some envious teeth-grinding!
This week, of course, we’ve also had our own TTJ Awards. These are the perfect partner to the Wood Awards, highlighting that all these tremendous applications of timber and wood products are underpinned by a professional, service-oriented and forward-looking industry. And congratulations from all of us to this year’s TTJ Awards winners!
