Andrew Carpenter, Chief Executive of the Structural Timber Association believes that structural timber construction is on the up.
Two recent structural timber news stories have received widespread media coverage – a proposed 80-storey timber skyscraper in the Barbican, London and the partnership of Willmott Dixon and Robertson Timber Engineering to provide 1,000 offsite homes a year.
Showcasing the versatility of structural timber and its growing use as a building material, this news is a key indicator of the strength of the structural timber sector today. With forecasts expecting structural timber frame to represent 27 per cent of new housing projects by 2017, Willmott Dixon following in the footsteps of Barratt Homes is a positive sign.
As more homebuilders begin to see structural timber as the building material of choice, more residential properties will achieve higher efficiency ratings and the construction sector will be boosted in terms of meeting the Government’s house building target of 400,000 affordable homes by 2020.
Furthermore, utilising the latest technology and innovation by using offsite-manufacturing processes, better quality homes can be built more quickly. Providing more comfortable working environments, unaffected by weather conditions, offsite construction presents the ideal solution for housebuilders who want to ensure targets are met, and in some cases surpassed.
