Collecting a trophy at the Wood Awards has always been a proud moment but the winners can take even more pride in that, according to judge and RIBA Journal editor Hugh Pearman, they are the “most thoroughly judged awards” he has known.
“The judges take their site visits very seriously and spend months travelling to the far corners,” he said.
Further kudos was added by judges’ chairman Giles Downes who said the quality of the entries seemed to improve every year.
This year the coveted Gold Award went to Formby Pool in Lancashire, which also won the Commercial and Public Access category. The timber frame building, designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley, uses Kerto LVL and Finnish spruce, CSA-certified Canadian Douglas fir and is clad in English oak. The judges praised it for being “transcendental in its calmness and simplicity”.
Highly commended in the Commercial and Public Access category was the Longshaw Moorland Discovery Centre. Using Swedish plywood, spruce, birch, larch and cedar, the project by Allen Tod Architecture impressed the judges with “the discipline and handling of the material”.
Kerto LVL also featured in the gridshell roof of Marlowe Academy in Ramsgate, which won the Structural category. The judges described the building, designed by Building Design Partnership, as “generous and spatially innovative”.
The winner of the Private category was Dairy House designed by Skene Catling de la Pena. Using English oak, the former dairy converted into a five-bedroom home was “a subtle and effective idea translated with great skill”. Accordia, a 212-house, 166-apartment development in Cambridge, was highly commended.
The Conservation and Restoration prize went to Abbey Barn in Dorset, where English oak and elm from the owners’ estate was used to restore the 15th century building. The judges said the work had extended the life of the structure indefinitely.
The highly commended award went to the restoration of the medieval doom board at St James church, Chippenham.
The Furniture prize, introduced last year, was awarded to the English oak and sweet chestnut seating at Jerwood Sculpture Park, Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, while Jason Heap was highly commended for his Infinity+1 table.
In the special awards, the Finnish plywood, free-standing shelving in King’s School Library, Worcester, won both the Small Project and Innovation awards, while the “high quality of workmanship” in Carmarthen Place, a pair of two-bedroom houses in London, was rewarded in the Offsite category.
The Best Use of British Timber was won by the gridshell roof over Chiddingstone Castle’s orangery. Made from chestnut from south-east England, the project team included architect Peter Hulbert, structural engineer Buro Happold, and Carpenter Oak & Woodland.
The Wood Awards is supported by more than 20 sponsors, led by The American Hardwood Export Council, Carpenters’ Company, the Forestry Commission and wood for good.
