Highlights of the RIAS Best Use of Timber Awards 2017 on show at Glasgow’s Lighthouse

The Best Use of Timber Awards 2017 exhibition, at The Lighthouse in Glasgow, showcases the winner and shortlisted entries to the annual RIAS Awards scheme. Forestry Commission Scotland and Wood for Good combined to sponsor the award, which is aimed at encouraging innovative and creative use of timber in new buildings in Scotland. The exhibition features the winning and shortlisted projects, demonstrated through photography and models, and was curated by Architecture and Design Scotland.

The award seeks to stimulate greater appreciation of home grown timber and its potential for use in construction, with added consideration given to thoughtful and appropriate use of different species. Technical competence is of course paramount and the design and detail of how the timber is used was as much a part of the assessment criteria as imagination and overall architectural excellence. There is no restriction on building type or scale of project – from small to large and from domestic to commercial, the challenge is to show how suited the use of timber is to the development of new architecture in Scotland.

Above: Culardoch Shielding by Moxon Architects (phs: Ben Addy)

The overall winning project was Culardoch Shielding, by Moxon Architects. This small hut sits alone in the vast, rugged and windswept landscape of the Cairngorms. It was commissioned as a place for small gatherings or parties, and contains a very long and narrow table. The interior is entirely lined with locally grown, untreated spruce, while the exterior is clad in larch, with the roof covered in moss and stone.

Above: Thistle Foundation Centre of Wellbeing by 3DReid; pop-up pavilion by Konishi Gaffney Architects

Shortlisted projects range range from a large-scale building such as the Thistle Foundation Centre of Wellbeing by 3DReid, through to an eco-friendly Pop Up Pavilion for the Mound in Edinburgh, designed by Konishi Gaffney Architects.

Above: Comielaw Steading by Konishi Gaffney Architects

Also by Konishi Gaffney, and shortlisted, is Comielaw Steading, a B-listed farm with a U-shaped plan dating back to the late-seventeenth-century, developed as workspaces to benefit the local economy.

Above: Greenrig development, by Pete Cummins Architect; Tinhouse by Rural Design.

Other projects include the Tinhouse – by Rural Design – a simple form recalling an archetypal child’s image of a house, located on the north-western tip of the Isle of Skye.

The Greenrig development, by Pete Cummins Architect, consists of two buildings, a cycle skills track and an extensive network of cycle paths and walkways in Canada Woods, on the Callendar Estate, Falkirk.

‘The Best Use of Timber Awards 2017’ exhibition is at The Lighthouse, Glasgow G1 3NU, from 17 January until 30 March 2018