Timber Development UK has embarked on a new strategic partnership to put knowledge at your fingertips.
It is widely recognised that there is a knowledge gap for specification of timber products among trainee architects, engineers and those in related studies.
To close this gap, a new strategic partnership between Timber Development UK, Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) and the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE) is creating the most comprehensive online library of technical specification documents and timber design guidance in the UK.
The knowledge library that TDUK and Edinburgh Napier University – a leading technical research institute for timber engineering and design – are creating will launch with 150 reports by leading wood science and timber specialists. The library will include information about timber supply, design considerations and building techniques with the goal of providing architects, specifiers and engineers with all the information they need to put timber at the heart of projects.
Other topics will include wood anatomy and an overview of standards and specification of mass timber products. All of these reports will be free to download and use for every TDUK member.
Craiglockhart Campus, Edinburgh Napier University
The library will continue to expand and develop each year, with the aim of creating the largest technical timber information resource in the UK – if not the world!
As part of our mission to grow the use of wood through the education of a future generation of specifiers, these reports will underpin and inform a set of short practical courses being developed by NMITE’s Centre for Advanced Timber Technology (CATT) in partnership with TDUK. The courses, known as Timber TED, will use the TDUK Knowledge Library to give learners practical experience in solving design-based challenges.
The Timber TED (Technology, Engineering & Design) courses will create comprehensive and flexible upskilling and reskilling training for modern methods of timber construction. Learners will gain specialist timber construction knowledge and skills, focusing on ‘better, faster and greener’ delivery. The Timber TED 1 course covers design, materials and sustainability, while Timber TED 2 will cover design, construction, technology and manufacture.
The 12-week courses are available to anyone working in the built environment industry. They will use a blended learning approach of online and in-person teaching at the NMITE campus in Hereford. Students will be assessed using ongoing projects and challenges throughout the course, all of which will aid in producing a personal portfolio that forms the final assessment.
By the end of the course, students will be able to design and execute a sustainable built-environment structure using timber, as well as develop an understanding of timber construction and digitally driven design practices.
More details of the Timber TED courses are online at nmite.ac.uk