Timber was a winner at The Daily Telegraph British Home Awards last week, featuring strongly in several of the buildings that took prizes.
Joint winners of the Small Building of the Year Award were Cavendish House in Cambridge, designed by Mole Architects, and big micro home by dwelle ltd of Manchester.
Cavendish House’s three-storey structure is based on cross-laminated timber panels and glulam beams and columns. Combined with recycled foamglass insulation, this gives annual overall energy use of 92kWh/m², which is below the Passivhaus benchmark.
The dwelle design, which is also produced as a garden building and beach hut, uses I-joist and solid timber-framed panels for walls, floor and roof and cellulose-fibre insulation.
Winner of the Large House of the Year Prize was the Welch House in the Isle of Wight by The Manser Practice Architects of London. This is steel-framed but the envelope is almost entirely made of black-stained, epoxy-sealed plywood. Plywood is also used for floors, walls and ceilings.
