More entries, new categories and the longest ever shortlist. Small wonder the organisers and judges describe this year’s Wood Awards as the biggest and best to date.
It was said last year, but it applies even more so this time around, the Awards also show that timber is being used more extensively, in greater variety and with ever more ambition in UK construction.
In total the competition attracted 206 entries and the judges eventually managed to whittle these down to a shortlist, although some might consider that a slight misnomer as it comprises 33 projects.
Unveiling the shortlist at the 100% Detail exhibition on September 21, architect Simon Conder, who designed last year’s Gold Award winner Pinions Barn, said the high standard of the Wood Awards entries had “made the rest of us raise our game”.
This year’s entries, he said, “will encourage a new generation of architects to use timber”.
Adding to the interest this year, there is a new Offsite Award, with the shortlist for this comprising Building Design Partnership’s new head office for Roche in Welwyn Garden City, a feast of American white oak, birch and Canadian maple, and the SIXTYK consortium’s SIPs-based entry in the government’s competition challenging builders to develop a £60,000 house.
The other new departure is the Furniture Award, a natural extension, it was felt, to the existing categories recognising exceptional use of timber and wood products in structural and interior applications. This, say the judges, has also attracted some remarkable work – hence the fact that this Award has the longest shortlist, with entries ranging from the fiddle-back sycamore Lotus Table from Andrew Varah, to the debating chamber furniture for the National Assembly of Wales designed by Ben Dawson Furniture and entered by the Richard Rogers Partnership.
“The new category, which we launched with the support of the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers, has been very exciting,” said Wood Awards organiser Michael Buckley. “The phenomenal standard of work really underlines the strength of the UK’s semi-bespoke and bespoke middle to high end furniture sector.”
The main architectural categories attracted a similarly wide variety of projects. The shortlist for Commercial and Private Access, for instance, includes Hopkins Architects’ simple, but perfectly formed Broughton Hall Pavilion at one end of the scale and the symphony in wood – including American hard maple and English oak – that is Burrell Foley Fisher’s Menuhin Hall.
“Not only were the projects very diverse, we’ve got wood in every shape and form,” said Mr Buckley. “We’ve got tropical and temperate hardwood, a huge range of softwood – and MDF and plywood also feature. It’s not just about solid wood joinery.”
The other Awards categories are Structural, Small Project, Conservation/Restoration, and Private. In addition the judges present Innovation and Best Use of British Timber Awards at their discretion.
Judges chairman Giles Downes of Sidell Gibson Architects summed up the shortlist as a “huge testament to the use of wood in buildings”. The winners will be announced on October 18 at the presentation ceremony in the Carpenters’ Hall in London.
The Wood Awards is backed by 22 sponsors, led by The American Hardwood Export Council, the Carpenters’ Company, the Forestry Commission and Wood for Good.
