From public landmarks, workplaces and homes to restorations, experimental structures and furniture items, this year’s Wood Awards demonstrates how wood is redefining design values, uniting sustainability, innovation and craft.
Beyond its tactile warmth and natural beauty, wood is driving some the most structurally ambitious, environmentally responsible, and finely detailed architecture and design projects in the UK.
Timber in the public realm
The education building is one of two new buildings designed by Feilden Fowles for the Natural History Museum © Jim Stephenson
The 2025 Gold Award and Education & Public Sector category winner, Feilden Fowles’ Urban Nature Project, delivers a sensitive transformation to one of the UK’s most treasured public institutions: the Natural History Museum. This landscape-led masterplan reimagines the museum’s approach as a journey through geological time, expressed through a series of outdoor living galleries.
Integrated within the relandscaped grounds are two new buildings: a garden café with natural ventilation and finely detailed joinery, creating an inviting atmosphere beneath an exposed Douglas fir structure, and an education pavilion whose cedar-shingled roof, punctuated with bands of dog-tooth detailing, reveals the layered logic of its timber construction. The structures exemplify craft at its most disciplined: simple, economical carpentry elevated to a level of refinement that harmonises with the buildings’ historic and natural context.
Also celebrated for its technical and environmental ambition, Paradise by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS) received the Structural Award. This low-rise workspace in London integrates mass-timber construction with architectural clarity, providing characterful interiors benefitting from the vitality of exposed spruce. Judges praised the exemplary coordination of the project and expert resolution from structural and fire perspectives.
The red deck of Asif Khan’s Rafter Walk – highly commended in the Education & Public Sector category – provides a popular pedestrian bridge that winds across newly created wetlands at Canada Water Dock. The complex curvatures are realised with a sequence of precisely fabricated and tensioned cassettes. Every detail – from concealed lighting to lowered balustrades providing peepholes for children – demonstrates exceptional workmanship.
Beautiful living spaces
Young’s Court Development at Emmanuel College was celebrated in the Education category © Jack Hobhouse
Timber’s versatility is equally evident in this year’s residential projects. Al Jawad Pike’s Chowdhury Walk, winner of the Residential award, sets a new benchmark for council-led housing. Using cross-laminated timber to deliver generous, well-organised homes, the scheme reveals equally thoughtful design across both the terrace’s external environment and its interiors. Exposed CLT ceilings and finely finished façades bring texture and warmth to a project that proves that social housing can be sustainable, affordable and beautifully made.
In Suffolk, a new cruciform brick construction forms the backbone of Amento: a private house sitting sensitively within its landscape setting. Designed by James Gorst Architects, and highly commended in the Residential category, the character of the home shifts gently across a series of quadrants unified by a consistent palette of timber and stone. The layered cladding and interior joinery showcase a quiet mastery of detailing and proportion.
At Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Stanton William’s Young’s Court Development extends two student accommodation wings with a new Douglas-fir glulam pavilion, providing bright, socialising and study space. Highly commended in the Education and Public Sector category, judges praised its elegant structural expression and careful integration within the collegiate setting.
Reuse, circularity and conservation
Upminster Tithe Barn was commended as ‘an exemplary act of stewardship’ © Liane Ryan
Circularity emerged as a key theme in 2025. New Wave House – winner of both the Commercial & Leisure and Sustainability Awards – transforms an existing industrial building with a beautifully detailed vertical timber extension. Designed by Thomas Mc-Brien Architects together with New Wave London, the project features a carefully coordinated timber structure paired with expansive glazing that floods the interior spaces with daylight. Much of the material palette was salvaged or reused from previous projects, including insulated roof panels. The result is a calm, coherent and exemplary demonstration of how circular design can enhance commercial value and environmental performance.
In Feix&Merlin’s Walworth Town Hall, highly commended in the Sustainability category, mass timber has played a key role in rescuing and reimagining a fire-damaged civic landmark. Working closely with the local authority, the project team balanced heritage sensitivity with contemporary use, demonstrating how structural timber can enable affordable and meaningful renewal.
The Restoration & Reuse award went to The Cowshed by Design Storey Architects: a deft transformation of a dilapidated, listed agricultural structure into a two-bedroom home. The project preserves the character of the original barn while lifting the structure and levelling the interior. Judges admired the precision of its joinery, with new timber carefully scarfed into old, and the clever unlocking of space.
Highly commended was Purcell’s restoration of the Upminster Tithe Barn, whose medieval timber frame and newly rethatched roof have been carefully repaired using traditional methods. The commitment of Historic England, the London Borough of Havering and National Highways to support the safeguarding of this 15th-century structure was praised by the judges as an exemplary act of stewardship.
Studio Hagen Hall’s Pine Heath – winner of the Interiors award – offers a masterclass in sensitive retrofit. The skilful refurbishment of this modernist town house preserves original timber features while dramatically improving energy performance.
Each component of the Somer Kitchen is designed for disassembly and longevity © Elliot Sheppard
Applying circular economy thinking to kitchen design, Somer Kitchen at Balbougie Steading was highly commended in the Production Furniture category for its ambitious, systemic approach to design for reuse, with each component engineered for disassembly and longevity, allowing for reconfiguration and repair.
Experimental and demonstration structures
Experimental timber projects continue to expand the material’s technical and creative frontiers. A Forest Datum, winner of the Bespoke Award, pioneers the use of natural beech forks as structural nodes in a repeatable construction system. The project was celebrated for its innovative reimagining of how under-utilised timber species can serve as high-value structural components.
Winner of the Small Project award, The Armadillo by Unknown Works, combines elegant, acoustically driven form with material and design innovation. It explores demountable construction and tests the application for a new hybrid eucalyptus-pine CLT, demonstrating how experimentation can inform broader advances in timber engineering.
A celebration of craft and community: the Farmer’s Arms Cold Food Store © Hayatsu Architects
Resulting from a skill-sharing workshop that brought together crafts from Japan and UK, the Farmer’s Arms Cold Food Store was highly commended for its ingenuity and local material use. Designed by Hayatsu Architects and constructed in just seven days by a team of volunteers using local materials, the project stands as a vibrant expression of collaborative craftsmanship and community involvement.
Furniture and objects: celebrating UK hardwoods
This year’s Furniture & Object categories highlighted the diversity and potential of UK-grown species – from ash, oak and beech to horse chestnut, cedar and sycamore.
The Production Award went to the Levity Collection: a family of solid ash chairs that balance manufacturing efficiency with graceful refinement – marking a confident debut for young British furniture maker Gaze Burvill, designed with Katie Walker Furnituremaker.
Also celebrating the strength and beauty of ash was the Student Award winning Her Captain’s Chair, by Lily Hitchcock Design. This project stood out for its research-led design, addressing the underrepresentation of women in design leadership through a beautifully resolved steam bent form that considers posture and its psychological impacts.
In the Sculpted Object category – now in its second year – two pieces were awarded: The Growth Project by Darren Appiagyei and Red Knot by Laura Welsh. Distinct in concept yet united in sculptural sensitivity, both explore wood’s material intelligence and emotional resonance, inviting reflection on how we understand, shape, and co-exist with timber.
