E cobuild visitors took a range of perspectives on the striking plywood structure on TRADA’s stand. One likened it to the bleached bones of a whale, another some ancient marine fossil. A third picked up even more a tang of salt air, and imagined, if she put her ear to it, she would hear waves crashing on the beach.
None of these quite got the intention behind the structure, but did pick up on its inspiration and function. It was, in fact, the winning entry in the TRADA- and Timbmet-sponsored student design award, which challenges architectural students at Oxford Brookes University to take wood to its creative and performance limits. The brief this year was to design an island shelter for an injured marine to recuperate. It also had to double as an exhibition pavilion where TRADA could display models of the other entries, and a means of transport to the island.
Winner student Stephanie Lewis says she’s “drawn to wood” and fascinated with “finding third dimensions in two dimensional flat planes”. Consequently her winning concept comprises vertical crescents and ovals of 24mm plywood (all CNC machined by Severn Plywood), locked together with a horizontal bench – and to go to sea, you make a coracle from an oval.
But timber did not make its Ecobuild impact only on TRADA’s stand. There were a lot of other interesting things besides and a good proportion of them were from this industry.
There were comments that the sector’s overall presence felt diminished without the previous Timber Works area grouping companies. But others felt having timber-focused stands around the exhibition helped dispel the view that it is on the fringe and of specialist interest only.
“It creates the increasingly true impression that we are now a really integral part of the sustainable construction mainstream,” said one industry visitor.
One company took the integration theme further still. Combined with other materials and systems, products from engineered wood specialist Pasquill featured in the stand structures of parent Saint-Gobain, the latter’s Fabric First display and sister company Jewson.
Arnold Laver managing director Andrew Laver described Ecobuild as “the thinking man’s Interbuild”; all the products, with an added design and sustainability hook.
It was also about the excitement of innovation, which meant exhibitors had to have “new stories”. The timber sector didn’t disappoint here either. Laver itself made a big splash of waterproof Medite Tricoya MDF, Kebony unveiled its new radiata pine variant, James Jones introduced treatment-friendly incised spruce fence posts, Steico had its hinged roof system and Stewart Milne its low U-value open panels. As our Ecobuild review underlines further, timber really made its innovative impact felt.
In this edition, too, TRADA marketing manager Rupert Scott highlights key developments at the ideal timber sector bookend to Ecobuild – September’s Timber Expo show. The two events are perfect complements, the former presenting timber in the wider construction mix, Timber Expo giving the opportunity to go into greater detail – and, says Mr Scott, the show this year features the most comprehensive timber seminar programme for construction professionals to date. Take the two events together and the industry has never had a better opportunity to showcase its wares – and with Timber Expo stands already well-booked, it is clearly seizing it.
