Woodknowledge Wales

Woodknowledge Wales

Inspiring innovation through collaboration

Construction

Innovation Challenge | WoodBUILD Podcast with Rob Thomas and Matt Stevenson

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Podcast

Rob Thomas and Matt Stevenson are two innovators with a passion for working with timber in all its forms. In this podcast, recorded earlier this year, they join David Hedges for a conversation about why we innovate, collaboration and partnership, ingredients for and tests of success, the curse of the pilot, the role of Government and regulation and a lot more besides. Rob and Matt are keen to work with other like minded people and they offer an open invitation to listeners to get in touch if they have an idea they want to explore.

Guests

Matt Stevenson
 Rob Thomas
Contact Matt via email: matt@ecosystemstech.com Contact Rob via email: rob@hiraetharchitecture.co.uk

 

Building Performance Evaluation Guide

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New homes often fail to meet low-energy targets, and to satisfy residents with fundamental issues such as ease of use, summer comfort and energy costs. There is little Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) happening routinely on projects to close the performance gap. A step change is needed to transition to net zero carbon while making our homes comfortable, healthy and enjoyable.
This guidance is aimed at housing clients, and anyone interested in Building Performance Evaluation (BPE)  who want to evaluate and improve the performance of homes.
Its purpose is to provide an introduction to applying BPE in practice on projects, with:

  • Information for clients and project managers to gain an overview of the benefits of BPE, what the main BPE techniques can do, how to procure it, and the main activities to plan throughout a project from design to occupancy
  • Guidance on the main BPE techniques available
  • Tools for day-to-day use on projects, complemented by more detailed guidance, examples and references.

This guidance recommends a “core” BPE scope for clients and project teams wanting to understand and improve the performance of their homes. This provides a holistic look at performance, including people, the indoor environment, fabric performance, energy use and water use. It highlights how BPE techniques can work together, and the interactions between energy performance, people, and the indoor environment. It limits the involvement of experts and expensive equipment. Instead, the aim is to embed building performance throughout the project stages and empower project teams to deliver high performance.
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Cover image: © shutterstock.com / NDAB Creativity

Making the Right Choices—A Guide to Improving the Build Quality of New Build Timber Frame Social Housing

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Making the right decisions for the benefit of a building’s long term performance and user experience can be compromised by cost, lack of experience, and poor understanding of timber frame construction.
This guide aims to highlight some of the key points to consider along the pathway of designing, constructing and maintaining timber frame housing.
These points have been compiled reflecting on experience gained by delivering BMTRADA’s frameCHECK on-site quality consultancy service.
By helping the reader understand more about the consequences of some of the decisions to be made during construction.
This report has been compiled as part of the Home-Grown Homes Project, which looked into the way that timber is specified and used in construction, with its focus being on manufacturing. The aim of this document is to help all those involved with timber frame construction to deliver better performing and longer lasting homes.
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Embodied Carbon Guidance for Welsh Social Housing Developers, their design teams, contractors and suppliers

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This guidance has been written for those wanting to both increase their knowledge of Embodied Carbon in the housing sector and to understand how to reduce it. The target audience encompasses key stakeholders within Welsh social housing organisations including development and asset managers, their design teams, contractors and suppliers.
Clear and authoritative guidance is provided on how to procure and undertake an Embodied Carbon assessment, what benchmarks can be set, tools that can be used and how Embodied Carbon can be reduced. Examples are provided to show how others have tackled Embodied Carbon within their organisations and projects, with a focus on housing. Where relevant, other guidance and useful information is signposted.
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Authors: This guidance has been produced for Woodknowledge Wales on behalf of the Home-Grown Homes project. The document was authored by Jane Anderson of ConstructionLCA Ltd together with Katherine Adams, The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products.
Publication date: December 2020

Google Map highlights exemplar timber housing projects in Wales

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Explore information on construction, innovative products, use of home-grown timber and Welsh manufacturing, carbon impact and building performance in innovative timber housing projects across Wales.
This map showcases the exemplar timber housing projects Woodknowledge Wales has worked on in some way over the past few years. The Exemplar Housing Project layer contains basic project information. The Whole Life Carbon layer contains data on the carbon impact of those projects for which we have undertaken analyses. The Building Performance layer contains projects where we have undertaken some experimentation into different building performance methods. The Forest Nation Attribute layer attempts to capture the timber story such as the use of innovative products, the use of home-grown timber and the use of Welsh manufacturing.
This map represents our progress to date. We will continue to record the progress of our timber development agenda as well as the progress of Welsh housing in meeting the challenge of Net Zero whole Life carbon over the coming years.
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Cartrefi Di-Garbon

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Comisiynwyd Woodknowledge Wales gan Lywodraeth Cymru I baratoi strategaeth ar gyfer integreiddio cadwyn gyflenwi diwydiannau coedwig Cymru ag adeiladu â phren oddi ar y safle. Mae’r ddogfen hon yn darparu cynllun gweithredu strategol ar gyfer trawsnewid y defnydd o bren adeiladu a dyfir gartref ar gyfer adeiladu tai a helpu i gyflawni dyheadau Deddf Llesiant Cenedlaethau’r Dyfodol.

Darllenwch yr adroddiad llawn yma.



Zero Carbon Homes


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Welsh Government commissioned Woodknowledge Wales to prepare a strategy for the integration of the Welsh forest industries supply chain with offsite timber construction. This document provides an action plan to transform the use of home-grown timber in house building and help deliver the aspirations of the Well-being of Future Generations Act.

Read the report here.


Grŵp Cynefin video about benefits of building with timber


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Video from Grŵp Cynefin explaining the benefits of choosing to build with timber. In this video see the project under way at the former Buckley Medical Centre, in the town centre. The £2.2m two-storey timber-framed building will comprise 14 two- and ten one-bedroom apartments and is being developed in partnership with Flintshire County Council.




Home-grown Timber Construction


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Cwrt Rhos Fynach, Rhos on Sea


Quality homes designed, constructed and built from Wales’ woodland resource by local companies, to meet our housing needs – surely a win, win, win for our economy, environment and society?

Cwrt Rhos Fynach, Rhos on Sea was designed by Cru Architects, for Wales and West Housing Association to meet the needs of Conwy Borough Council in North Wales. Housing up to 26 residents in 11 flats, it was constructed and built by Williams Homes (Bala) Ltd using home-grown timber.



Benefits Of Using Home-Grown Timber

The Rhos on Sea project demonstrates that in Wales we have the raw materials and technical capacity to create a modern high performance and sustainable built environment. The project presents a model that if repeated all over Wales using a multitude of offsite techniques[1] available to clients would transform the quality and sustainability of the built environment and create additional economic and social value. This projects gives more confidence to an emerging Welsh industry that aspires to supply both the Welsh and English markets.

Wales has 13.8% forest cover. The European average forest cover is 37%.  Increasing the forest cover of Wales would be good for bio-diversity, water, air, amenity, flood prevention and soil health. It could also supply a sustainable construction resource for our future generations.

85% of timber used in construction is imported.  This means that there is a substantial market demand to enable expansion of the UK timber industry.  Increased production of home-grown timber is good because:


    

  • It improves the balance-of-trade,
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  • It creates employment – particularly in rural areas
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  • It encourages forest planting, which is good for the environment.
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Increasing forestry and increased construction timber form part of climate change mitigation strategies.  Forests provide a permanent carbon store. When timber is used in long life applications such as a construction beam, a carbon store is then created in buildings. Both forests and construction timber can be accounted for in a way that helps Wales meet its climate change commitments.

The Rhos on sea projects contributes to climate change mitigation in 3 key ways. (1) The high performance housing reduces operational energy consumption. (2) The use of homegrown timber creates carbon store that can be quantified and accounted for to help Wales meet its climate change commitments. (3) The indirect stimulation to forest planting is a further benefit, although difficult to quantify. 

The Rhos on Sea apartments demonstrate that home-grown timber is suitable for use in modern timber frame construction. The project demonstrates that with a motivated client, it is entirely possible to construct modern affordable high performance Welsh houses in a way that stimulates the development of Welsh businesses and the local timber industry and creates confidence about future demand.

[1] Open panel, closed panel, pre-insulted panel, volumetric etc.


Homegrown Timber in UK Construction – Case Studies, Volume. 1


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The projects showcased here represent a snap-shot of what’s happening throughout the whole of the UK, but with an emphasis on projects in Wales – from housing to retail, simple homes and social housing to high end self-build, as well as offices and schools.

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