If there is a theme to this issue of Designing Timber, it’s that timber can be put to pretty much any use you can think of. There are so many impressive projects featured, notable for a remarkable variety of functions and styles.

Our cover story – the Gwynfaen development – proves just how effective offsite manufactured timber-frame housing is. It can deliver timber homes at large scale – and all while using homegrown timber. You can read the whole story directly from architects Stride Treglown. And there’s another great example of timber frame housing this issue – the Magna Rise development in rural Yorkshire, supplied by Deeside Timberframe.

We look at two very ambitious buildings that fall within the office/commercial sector this issue. The award-winning, six-storey Paradise Building uses a hybrid timber/steel approach to make ingenious use of every inch of its tight site, next to a railway line. The Thornton Building, on the other hand, is nestled at a biodiverse campus site near the River Cam, south of Cambridge. It provides new facilities for the European Bioinformatics Institute and home to leading genomics organisations. The article and its stunning photos make it clear that the design team, including FCBStudios and Ramboll, have created a relaxing and inviting place to work and collaborate.

Timber’s ability to apply contemporary design sympathetically in a heritage setting is proven in our article on Ightham Mote (by Reed Watts Architects). The visitor centre uses timber alongside hemp blocks which, coincidentally, is a technique also used in the Blythe Hill house extension.

The TDUK team have been busy this year – we’ve been expanding our Case Studies and Knowledge Library. This magazine’s ‘In Brief’ section has an overview of some of our notable recent publications, including a new Knowledge Sheet that’s all about reuseable timber connections. If you’re curious to know more about design that could be disassembled at some future point, then you’ll need to read this one. And while we’re on that subject, you can read an in-depth introduction to timber connections. Plus you can see a fantastic example of demountability and reinstallation in action in the form of the Croydon Smile Hub – a relocated, repurposed CLT building.

I hope you enjoy reading this issue. As ever, do get in touch with us at editorial@timberdevelopment.uk if you have any news of buildings, projects, products, or publications you’d like to share with the timber world.

Matt