But while I’d lost touch with my extremities, the cold hadn’t numbed my wits sufficiently that I didn’t realise this building project ranks among the ultimate examples to date of what can be achieved through true integration of timber and construction sectors.
London may now have two nine-storey timber buildings. But this single development, called Strandparken, which features in the new edition of TTJ’s sister magazine Timber & Sustainable Building, will comprise four eightstorey blocks side by side. The foundations and undercroft car park are concrete, but all the rest of the buildings are in giant cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels and glulam beams.
The panels are delivered with insulation, sheathing and cladding attached, service ducts and door and window apertures pre-cut and most windows factory-fitted. As a result, the first block is growing a storey every 10 days.
Strandparken is the latest project undertaken by Martinsons Byggsystem, working hand in glove with an architect and builder-developer from the outset. The company is the engineered timber building arm of sawmiller, CLT and glulam maker Martinson Såg. And according to managing director Mikael Lindberg, it was formed because its parent realised that the best way to develop timber’s true construction potential was to partner ever more closely with the sector – not just sell it building materials, but provide holistic solutions, until today it can supply virtually the entire building.
Encouragingly, while Strandparken might be taking it to new heights, this ever-tighter partnering and solutions-based approach between timber and construction also figures in other projects in Timber & Sustainable Building. It can also be seen behind latest product and system fire safety approvals issued under the UK Timber Frame Association SiteSafe scheme, also featured in the magazine. This shows timber and timber frame sectors collaborating to provide the complete highperformance, safety-assured package.
Since Timber Expo’s launch two years ago, a prime aim of the show has also been to build ever stronger bridges between timber and building industries. And it’s done this not only through exhibitors displaying latest products and integrated systems, but comprehensive programmes of seminars and presentations about how these can deliver state-of-the-art, intelligent, high-performance, sustainable structures.
Now the show has dramatically broken the news that it is relocating from Coventry’s Ricoh Arena to the bigger, better connected NEC in Birmingham. This will not only enable the UK’s all-timber exhibition to grow; it is billed as a key strategic move that will pull in more of those architects, designers, builders and contractors to see timber’s enormous solutionproviding potential.
Of course, not every timber company can be a Martinsons Byggsystem. But clearly, the bigger and bolder timber goes in construction, the better it is for the entire supply chain; creating giant advertisements for the material overall and directly generating demand for other timber products. Take Strandparken. In addition to CLT and glulam, it features timber floors, joinery and fittings throughout. The buildings will also be clad from foundation to roof ridge in 14,000m2 of cedar shingles.
