UK Market Update

by Patrick Cooper

UK economy: UK GDP shrank by 5.5% during the year to September 2009, though gradually improving conditions led the British Chambers of Commerce to forecast that Britain's economy will contract by 4.3% throughout the whole of 2009, before recovering to grow by 1.1% in 2010. Construction contributes about 6% of the UK economy, and was particularly hard hit at the beginning of the year when output volume in the first three months of 2009 fell by 8% compared with the previous quarter, though the rate of decline in construction activity slowed to 0.8% in the second quarter of 2009. Popular opinion suggests that recovery from the recession experienced recently in the UK will be slow and fragile.

UK softwood imports during the first six months of 2009 amounted to 2,343,000m³, down 27.4% relative to the same period in 2008. However, the trend evident throughout the period shows positive signs of improvement by volume, supported by signs of recovery in construction output. Nevertheless, it is apparent that while UK traders enjoyed a buoyant sales period in July 2009, it was followed by a dramatic fallback in August, and current indicators from the merchanting sector show that September’s sales will not be strong enough to compensate. Confidence is still lacking, causing merchants to continue to operate on a just-in-time basis that involves short-term buying and keeping stocks at the lowest levels possible.

Sweden consolidated its position as the UK’s largest softwood supplier, holding 59.7% UK market share during the first half of 2009, up from 42.1% market share during the first half of 2008; Finland weakened its position as the UK’s second largest supplier (12.1% market share) followed by Latvia (8.5%), Irish Republic (4.9%), Germany (4.8%) and Russia (3.4%). Trader reports suggest that softwood lumber is currently being imported to the UK from the west and east coast regions of Canada, from mills that are able to supply in accordance with market and quality requirements.

The National Softwood Division Committee Members’ ‘Sawn Softwood Import & Stock Forecasts 2009, 2010’ suggest that sawn softwood imports to the UK will decrease by 14% in 2009 to 4.7 million m³, and then increase by 14% in 2010 to 5.4 million m³. Softwood consumption in the UK is expected to decrease by 4.5% in 2009 to 7.68 million m³, and then increase by 4.0% in 2010 to 7.99 million m³. Growth in construction is expected to contribute noticeably to any upturn in demand, and appears inevitable given the desperate need for the UK to build new homes. The Home Builders Federation cites a comparison between household growth during the period 2000-2008, which was reported to average 203,000 per year, and annual average construction of 166,000 new homes during the same period, noting that builders expect house completions in 2009 will total only 75,000 because of the downturn.

The Emergence of Cross-Laminated Timber Building Construction in the UK

by John Park

Building Schools for the Future, BSF One School Pathfinders, Primary Capital Programme, Academies and Colleges for the Future are all government backed programmes, described as comprising a once in a lifetime opportunity to change the UK’s education landscape by creating inspirational establishments fit for 21st century learners and teachers. The initiative has resulted in a large number of building, rebuilding and refurbishment projects. Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is a major government investment programme that aims to rebuild or renew nearly every secondary school in England over the next 15 years.

Local authorities that are not prepared to start the full BSF programme until its later stages have the opportunity to participate on One School Pathfinders (OSP) scheme, whereby one secondary school in each of these authorities is selected as a ‘pathfinder’, and funded to between £20 million and £30 million to be rebuilt or significantly refurbished, giving the local authority an opportunity to set-up and test its approach in advance of full Building Schools for the Future funding. The Primary Capital Programme is targeted at renewing at least half of all primary school buildings by 2022-23, and is supported by £1.9 billion of capital investment in the period 2008-11. Going forward it is expected that baselines will remain at £500 million a year. The Academies and Colleges for the Future programme is expected to result in over £2.3 billion investment in capital projects, and promote between £4 billion and £5 billion of development by colleges, schools and other providers over the three-year period to 2010–11. The resulting building and refurbishment work has created demand for materials, and created exciting opportunities for cross-laminated structural timber panel systems that have recently been developed as a result of timber industry investment in value-added products taking place in some European countries.

Cross-laminated timber offers opportunities to use timber in situations where designers would otherwise specify materials such as steel, concrete or masonry. KLH Massivholz is an Austrian manufacturer of cross-laminated structural timber panels that utilises spruce certified under the PEFC scheme as a raw material. The wood is cut into boards that are dried, stacked at right angles and then glued together over their entire surface using formaldehyde-free polyurethane adhesive. Depending on requirements, the panels are fabricated in 3, 5, 7 or more board layers, produced to a maximum length of 16.50m, and maximum width of 2.95m. They are made as fully load-bearing structural building elements suitable for use as large wall, floor and roof sections, and door, window and stair openings can be precision cut in factory. Panels are available in non-visual, industrial visual and as domestic quality for living spaces. Once delivered to site, the elements, which feature high-precision joints, are simply and quickly bolted together by qualified carpenters, presenting a dry shell that is immediately available for follow-on works, with very little resultant waste.

The panels are endowed with properties that include excellent thermal and sound insulation, stability, and fire performance, air-tightness combined with breath-ability, and full European testing and certification. KLH manufactured prefabricated panels were used for St John Fisher School in Peterborough to construct a new sports hall and additional teaching facilities. The buildings, part of an £11m refurbishment, utilised 1,000m³ of the product. The architect had originally specified brick and pre-cast concrete planks for the structures, but the project engineer recommended the timber solution instead, estimating that the timber panels represented a CO2 saving of 300 tonnes, which reportedly enthused the client. The sports hall has 12m high wall panels, and construction of the timber shell took only six weeks. The engineer has proceeded to work with another architects’ practice, assisting with the Norwich Academy which will use a total of 3,000m³ of KLH prefabricated panel. Eurban is a UK-based company specialising in the design, manufacture, delivery and installation of bespoke engineered timber building structures. With the aim of delivering high-quality, sustainable building structures, through the use of natural materials, factory-based production and an integrated supply chain, the company has developed a methodology utilising Finnforest Merk’s LenoTec cross-laminated timber panel building components. Their panels are made in Germany from spruce, in dimensions of up to 4.80m x 20m and thicknesses of between 50mm and 300mm, after which they are precision machined in a factory in Switzerland.

The Eurban building system involves design, computer modelling and installation of cross-laminated solid timber panels, leading to the creation of structures up to 10 storeys high. Where additional support is required – for example, on very wide spans – the panels can be combined with glulam or steel beams. The Eurban system is being tested and used in the construction of colleges funded under the Building Schools for the Future framework, such as the £29m Waignels College in Wokingham. It was employed also for the development and expansion of St Agnes primary school in Manchester, a three storeys project with a sports hall and nursery on the ground floor, six classrooms on the first floor, another three on the second and a rooftop play area. Once the groundwork contractors had completed their work and the floor slab was cast, the entire building structure was brought to site in just 16 lorry loads, with the largest panels measuring 3m x 13m. Two panel thicknesses were used: 135mm for the walls and 169mm for the floors. Where walls need to meet prescribed acoustic requirements, an acoustic liner is sandwiched in place with another 24mm panel. The panels, which are manufactured to tolerances of 2mm, with all the openings for the doors and windows cut into them, sit on a timber base-plate fixed to the concrete floor slab. Assembly starts from the corners, with temporary bracing used to hold the first panels upright until enough of them are in place to make the structure self-supporting. All the components are pre-drilled and fixed with large 750mm-long screws, and Eurban took just eight weeks to complete the shell and structure.

Meanwhile Waugh Thistleton architects’ nine-storey cross-laminated timber building known as ‘The Stadthaus’, built in Murray Grove, London, has become the tallest residential timber building in the world. The project is described fully in a recently published book titled ‘A Process Revealed / Auf dem Howlzweg (Architecture)’ by Henrietta Thompson - ISBN: 978-0-9558620-6-9. The Waugh Thistleton practice is now working on more projects using the same cross-laminated wood panel construction system, including a cinema, synagogue, and another large apartment block, all in east London.

Users of cross-laminated timber building systems benefit greatly from their simplicity, ability to meet ever more challenging building regulations, speed of construction, and their credentials in terms of social, economic and environmental sustainability. The material is attracting considerable interest throughout the architectural profession, and one may be inclined to conclude that the method of construction has as excellent future prospects.