From forest to homes

This month our Alice Davies and Colin Davis joined a learning journey organised by Structural Timber Association (STA) in partnership with the Future Homes Hub coming face-to-face with Scotland’s dominant timber frame housing sector (which builds 92% of Scottish new homes).

In glorious weather Alice and Colin joined delegates from across the construction industry and government on the two-day bus journey from Inverness to Aberdeen, getting a fascinating behind-the-scenes insight from sustainably managed forests and primary processing to product manufacture and housing construction sites.

Stops included Forest and Land Scotland’s Culbin Forest on the Moray Coast, West Fraser Europe’s OSB (Oriented Strand Board) mill at Dalcross, Inverness known locally as the “Cloud Factory”, James Jones and Sons Ltd I-joist production line at Forres and their sawmill at Aboyne, Kirkwood Timber Frame factory in Aberdeenshire, as well as live housing sites Cala Home’s Oldfold Village in Milltimber with panels being erected on site and Bancon Homes completed homes at Cloverhill, Aberdeen, 100% affordable local authority all-electric housing with building fabric approaching Passivhaus standards.

Alice Davies:

“We learnt about sustainable forest management, the carbon benefits of timber and the role of UK-grown timber in creating lower-carbon homes.

It was great to see the circularity of timber in person when we visited the factories. Offcuts are used to make OSB products or biofuel to power the factories, and timber structures can be designed with end-of-life disassembly in mind.”

A huge thank you to the STA and Future Homes Hub for the invitation and sponsors PEFC UK and Swedish Wood, and especially to Sonja Underwood and Stewart Dalgarno for organising such a brilliant couple of days (and keeping Alice and Colin very well fed along the way!).

Keep your eyes peeled for an exciting announcement about the work we’ve been doing with the STA