The TRADA Timber Engineering 2005 Award has been won by Roger Knipe of Queens University, Belfast, from where a number of entries were received. Appropriately, he received his prize from TRADA Technology head of engineering Graeme Spencer at the Institution of Chartered Engineers’ conference ‘The Potential of Timber in Construction’ on October 31.
Mr Knipe’s entry – based on a folded plate timber frame roof construction – won him £1,000 in prize money and, Mr Spencer said he “shows great potential in becoming a promising engineer of the future”.
The second prize of £500 was awarded to Oliver Edwards, University of Nottingham. His entry addressed the possibility of using British-grown timber for glulam members, as the centralised layers between TR26 outer laminates at various thicknesses.
The judges are now looking forward to next year’s entries. “We hope to encourage groups of architectural and engineering students to join forces, to produce innovative entries that will sex up the use of timber in mainstream construction,” said Mr Spencer.
The judges were senior research engineer Christopher Mettem, timber consulting engineer John Gordon and CCB Evolution managing director Martin Milner. The award, sponsored by TRADA, the Institution of Structural Engineers and wood. for good, was launched to recognise excellence and innovation.
