Architects acquainted with Constructional Timber (CT) seem to have one complaint: that there aren’t more companies in the UK like it.
“Design in steel frame, and you can call on no end of contractors,” said FCB Studios’ Andy Couling, who worked with CT on the award-winning Formby Pool. “Timber specialists like CT are still much thinner on the ground. If they’re busy, you’re stuck.”
Talking to directors Martin Daws and Steve Godfrey you soon appreciate that, in fact, “timber specialist” isn’t quite the right label for the company. Closer to the mark would be that even rarer commodity in the UK, timber construction generalist.
CT’s portfolio runs from individual timber components, such as mortice and tenon feature trusses, through timber-framed house extensions and bridges, to public and commercial buildings, using a spread of timber construction systems.
The company won’t say that size of contract is no object, but its work at the top end includes big-time projects by any standard. Take Hackney’s Mossbourne academy. Here it built a 1,000m3 glulam frame with 4,000 bolt connections which, with input from engineers Whitbybird, innovatively supports three storeys of concrete flooring (Timber Building Spring 2006).
Then there’s the Oasis leisure centre in Penrith, for which CT supplied wall panels, the undulating 110m twin-member Kerto lattice truss and plywood deck roof. It’s billed as Europe’s biggest timber frame building and CT’s portion of the contract was worth over £1m. “It took a year from design to completion and our people were on site for six months,” said Daws.
And one of CT’s latest contracts was the roof structure for Liverpool’s multi-million pound Picton Leisure Centre, comprising huge glulam beams and glulam and steel pillars and struts.
“The nine beams, from Kauffman in Austria, were 38m long and weighed 7.5 tonnes apiece,” said Godfrey. “Getting them to site was an exercise in itself. We needed a police escort to take them three per truck up the M62 from Immingham.”
CT’s broad range of projects is matched by the spectrum of materials it works with – a factor which, according to Daws, distinguishes it further from the pack.
“Some specialists focus on, say, just whitewood glulam. But from the outset we’ve used a range of solid and engineered wood, including solid oak and Douglas fir, whitewood, redwood and Douglas fir glulam, and laminated veneer lumber.”
CT’s product palette, he added, includes various types of I-joist and metal web beams and it also supplies prefabricated timber and I-joist based floor and wall panels.
According to Daws, the basis of CT’s ability to handle such diverse projects and construction systems is simple. Founded by the late Norman Woods in 1979, it’s been around the block.
“In UK terms being 29 makes us a veteran,” said Daws. “It means we’ve been able to build up a lot of expertise and experience in house and develop long-term relationships with a network of businesses and individuals who complement our own skills in design, detailing and erection.”
CT still regards itself as a niche business, but there’s no doubt the mainstream building market is now tilting in its direction.
“We’ve been increasingly busy, in fact last year was our turnover record and this year looks like being at least as good,” said Daws. “Timber construction is definitely more widely accepted and that’s mainly down to growing environmental concerns and appreciation of wood’s sustainability.”
A knock-on from market growth is that CT is working with more clients with limited timber experience. That places even more onus on specification advice and general hand-holding. “Architects and structural engineers still get relatively little exposure to wood in training so we’re asked if glulam is suitable for this, or LVL for that,” said Daws. “Part of our role is educational. We give CPD presentations and encourage architects to visit us in Barnsley to see the material first hand – you can’t judge a glulam beam from a sample.”
The company joins projects at various stages, but prefers to get in sooner rather than later.
“We like to get involved early so we can help design and engineer out potential problems at the outset, rather than resolve them at a later stage,” said Daws.
And, insists Godfrey, CT even advises against wood if it’s not right for the job. “We’ve occasionally recommended hybrids, say steel and timber frame,” he said. “Although we don’t advise that steel framers handle the timber element as we’ll only have to fix it later.”
CT’s experience and reputation for design and engineering input has also helped it land work on some of the UK’s more technically and aesthetically demanding timber buildings of recent years. Prime examples are two Wood Awards Gold winners – the Formby Pool and Hopkins Architects’ Norwich Cathedral refectory – and the Wickersley Northfield Primary School in Rotherham, a Wood Awards shortlister.
All three buildings posed their own technical challenges, but Formby prompts most eyebrow raising between Daws and Godfrey. The principal structural element of the building is Finnforest’s Kerto LVL, which forms the main pillars, bowstring trusses, roof deck and the 50m Pratt truss propping the entire west elevation (Timber Building Spring 2008). And it was the first time architects FCB Studios had used it.
Daws is full of praise for the finished building. “But initial discussions involved some ‘negotiation’ about what you could and couldn’t do with LVL,” he said.
For the Norwich Cathedral refectory, CT fabricated and supplied the 8m English oak structural pillars and 3.5m roof struts.
“We had the oak finger-jointed, then laminated it ourselves and sent it out for turning,” said Daws. “And the bespoke steel connectors were made by one of our long-term suppliers, Britannia Precision Engineering.”
CT is now involved with Hopkins on the cathedral’s new ‘Hostry’. Housing a visitors’ centre and choir area, this mirrors the Refectory in design and materials, but with a few tweaks.
“We’re supplying 18 oak columns and 72 struts for the building,” said Daws. “The difference from the Refectory is that it has a mezzanine supported by steel beams going into the columns. This time we also couldn’t get enough English oak, so it’s mixed with German.”
Thanks to their upturned boat curves, the Arup-engineered Wickersley School buildings graced the pages of many an architectural glossy. And it was the flowing shapes that posed the challenge for CT, which supplied the glulam frame.
“The purlins link perpendicular to the curved beams and curve around and down the length of the building, so the geometry for the cuts was pretty complex,” said Godfrey. “We actually formed them into place on site, just like boat building.”
CT’s latest projects look like setting further technical posers. They include a swimming pool in Corby being built by Wilmott and Dixon, where it will erect eight 80m arches made from 10m glulam beams. In Lowestoft, meanwhile, it’s been working on the Orbis Energy visitors’ centre, supplying prefabricated wall panels and the main glulam structure. And the company is also involved with another Hopkins building, the Bury St Edmunds Cattle Market retail development, where it is supplying a glulam frame and plywood deck roof.
Looking further ahead, Daws expects the business – and technical challenges – coming CT’s way to continue to grow.
“The construction sectors we’re involved in still look resilient and, with rising concern about sustainability, we can’t see things slowing down,” he said. “Another area we’re expanding is timber frame, using our wall and floor panels. We’re not competing with the Stewart Milnes and Prestoplans, but we see opportunities for mid-scale projects like care homes.”
With four velodrome track frames under its belt – comprising glulam beams jointed with truss rafter-style nail plates – the company also hopes for business from the 2012 Olympics.
As to whether the wish of some architects will come true and more companies like CT will emerge to serve this evolving market, Daws is frank enough to say he hopes not. But he’s not unduly worried.
“Some have already tried and got their fingers burned!” he said. “It takes time to build a business like this.”
|
The Oasis Centre in Penrith |
|
The beams for the Picton Leisure Centre were 38m long |
Keywords: Constructional Timber
