Sustainable Buildings
Sustainable communities
Sustainable construction
‘Design for Manufacture’ competition
£60,000 homes under construction now!
Land use and density of development
Code for Sustainable Buildings
Sustainably managed forests
Sustainable Communities
The current drive to create ‘sustainable communities’ is about creating places where people want to live today – and where they will want to keep living for many, many years to come.
From the greening of our communities to the use of timber in the homes we build, the UK’s forestry and timber industries have an important role to play in this.
The UKTFA continues to provide information and support for the realisation of the first of the sustainable communities at Thames Gateway. For further information on our work in this area, contact us.
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Sustainable Construction
Timber frame has an inbuilt natural advantage in sustainable construction, and already represents the most environmentally friendly commercial building material available.
Wood is naturally renewable, organic and non-toxic. Almost all wood used by UK timber frame construction comes from well managed forests throughout Europe. It requires low energy inputs to harvest, transport and mill, and is very easily recycled.
It is calculated that a typical wooden house contains 12 to 20 cubic metres of timber, equivalent to the absorption of about 14 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Everyone knows that there is no single solution to solve the problems of global climate change, but timber frame plays a very useful role: a 10% increase in the share of timber frame houses built annually in Europe would result in a saving of hundreds of millions of tonnes of CO2.
And of course, the thermal efficiency of timber frame homes is legendary – providing homes that are very comfortable and require a lot less energy to heat. Timber frame developments regularly achieve ‘Very Good’ and ‘Excellent’ ratings under EcoHomes.
Timber frame homes are highly adaptable and accessible. Timber frame construction allows a very high level of internal design flexibility as internal walls need not be structural load-bearing walls, and the roof space is often useable to – in fact, making use of the room in the roof for a home office would award even more EcoHomes points!
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‘Design for Manufacture’ competition
The UK Timber Frame Association welcomes the ‘Design for Manufacture’ competition being run by the ODPM and English Partnerships. Among the shortlisted finalists there are a good number of developers using timber frame construction.
Timber frame is a well-established, modern method of construction. It’s no pushover, but we know that it is already possible to build a home that reaches good standards of accessible design and environmental performance for £60,000 – timber frame technology regularly delivers such high quality, cost-effective homes across the UK.
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£60,000 homes under construction now!
There have been many comments in the press suggesting that such a low construction cost will lead to homes that are low quality, cramped, expensive to run or uncomfortable to live in. We know that this is not the case.
Stewart Milne Group, the privately owned housebuilding company and UK’s leading timber frame manufacturer, has two sites currently under construction in Scotland that prove the opposite.
The sites in Aberdeen (one providing 30 two and three-bedroom homes, the other site providing 22 three-bedroom semis and apartments) are being built for the affordable housing sector in Scotland, and overall net construction costs (ie. excluding land) are in the region of £723/sq. m.
Obviously, total costs of construction of any site will vary, depending on the level of development risk involved – for example, if major infrastructure and community projects like schools and hospitals are required.
However, the use of timber frame construction on these sites allows a comfortably-sized three-bedroom home of 80 sq. m to be built for under £58,000, including labour costs, infrastructure (such as roads, sewers and drainage, and utility connections etc.) and a high standard of internal fixtures and fittings, including good quality kitchens and bathrooms that comply with the standards required by the Scottish Executive.
In fact, the standards for some of these homes vastly exceed normal requirements. Several of the properties built in Aberdeen are designed for residents with special needs, and include detached bungalows with full wheelchair access and other facilities for their needs. Thanks to timber frame’s natural advantages, the homes will be warm and cheap to run, easy to maintain, and quiet because of the very good sound insulation that can be achieved by this method of construction.
All the homes were constructed using open panel timber frame systems from Stewart Milne Timber Systems, and are compliant with EcoHomes, Decent Homes and the expected changes to Part L/Section 6. They meet all Building Regulations and other requirements for acoustics, fire resistance and thermal performance. This Modern Method of Construction is considered a Category 2 OSM panellised system by the Housing Corporation.
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Land use and density of development
The UK Timber Frame Association supports the Government’s drive towards the more efficient use of land and higher density housing.
Timber frame helps developers to meet Government requirements for excellent urban design, with current densities up to 45 dwellings per hectare. Multi-storey timber frame buildings can provide high quality apartments and other forms of accommodation (including nursing homes and student accommodation).
No one has taken any risks. Issues such as construction process benchmarking, stability, differential movements, disproportionate collapse, compartmental fire and timber stair performance have all been assessed. Test results have proven that timber frames are well suited to multi-storey construction – which is great news for designers and developers looking to meet the latest requirements of PPG3 and best practice in urban design.
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Code for Sustainable Buildings
The UK Timber Frame Association has long supported the Government’s agenda on sustainable construction. All of the Sustainable Buildings Task Group recommendations – and the challenges in the Code for Sustainable Buildings – are expected to be achievable using timber frame.
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Sustainably managed forests
The UKTFA actively encourages its members to provide evidence that the timber used comes from a sustainable managed source. This ensures forest management is effectively controlled and regulated.
We also work closely with Defra’s Central Point of Expertise on Timber (CPET), other UK and international authorities and NGOs such as the WWF to support and improve internationally recognised, credible systems of timber certification and labelling.
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