Designing Timber

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Urban Nature Project: Reimagining Natural History
by Bryony Bodimeade|27 November 25|Design
The Gold Award-winning timber and stone additions to the Natural History Museum use legible, low-tech construction and natural materials to connect visitors to the landscape. Feilden Fowles’ enchanting transformation of the Natural History Museum’s outdoor landscape has reshaped the visitor experience into a choreographed journey through geological history – while...
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Wood Awards 2025: Pushing the boundaries of timber design
by Bryony Bodimeade|25 November 25|Design
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...
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A new classroom for Old Newton, thanks to a timber kit-of-parts system
by Matt Milton|10 November 25|Design
For an expanding primary school, a kit-of-parts timber system provided the perfect, sustainable new classroom building – one that could be quickly and easily assembled, and unproblematically dismantled at the end of its life. Originally built in 1859, Old Newton Primary School sits in a rural setting just north of...
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A step up (or two) for Hastings House: a dramatic hillside extension
by Matt Milton|10 November 25|Design
Galvanized steel cladding sits above the red grandis glazing surrounds An ambitious extension and refurb has opened up a gloomy hillside house, turning it into a light-filled home that anchors new timber buildings onto its steep slope. The house on Millwood Road had been vacant for four or five years....
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A CLT crown for Royalty Studios
by Matt Milton|15 September 25|Design
This central London rooftop extension project, recently completed by TDUK members ConstruktCLT, demonstrates the architectural, structural, and environmental potential of using cross laminated timber (CLT) to sensitively modernise existing buildings. Royalty Studios, in Ladbroke Grove, is undergoing a full refurbishment and redevelopment, involving the addition of two new CLT storeys...
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Room up top: Optoppen’s airspace revolution
by Matt Milton|01 August 25|Design
Kelly Harrison, Director at Whitby Wood, explains how using timber to add storeys to a building could add transformative amounts of space to major cities like London. Optoppen is a Dutch word which translates as “topping up”. It is also the name of an online resource that will help anyone...
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Accoya charred timber cladding; courtesy Accsys
Charred timber cladding: guidance from the TDCA
by Guest Author|01 August 25|Design
Charred timber cladding comes in a myriad range of wood species, finishes and performance claims. This guidance from the Timber Decking and Cladding Association (TDCA) will help designers better understand charred timber and the claims made for its performance. Charring the surface of wood with fire is not new. The...
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Find out more about tropical timber – design decisions for a climate crisis
by Matt Milton|17 July 25|Design
With a raft of new policy and market developments coming on-stream – including the European Deforestation Regulation, a new FLEGT licence for Ghana and a forest focus for COP30 – designers should be considering tropical timber in their project designs. The world of tropical timber has often been cast in...
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The Engine House – contemporary living space with industrial roots
by Guest Author|17 July 25|Design
The Engine House at Linotype Works in Broadheath has stood as a marker of Victorian engineering since 1897. Originally built to house typesetting machinery, this historic structure faced demolition in 2021. A successful bid to Historic England secured its Grade II listed status, preserving its legacy for future generations. Located...
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Looking up in Sutton: why airspace extension is the answer for Sutton Housing Association
by Matt Milton|17 July 25|Design
Sutton Housing Society is looking up – literally. To expand and transform its housing provision for older people, it is pursuing what is, for a small provider, an ambitious programme of airspace (rooftop) extensions. Robin Roberts, their CE, explains... Sutton Housing Society has a proud legacy to uphold: it was...
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