New Glasgow exhibition celebrates offsite timber construction

A new exhibition in Glasgow is showcasing sustainable offsite-manufactured buildings made from wood.

Supported by Scottish Forestry, engineering and built environment students from Edinburgh Napier University have launched the event, titled Timber Offsite Construction – Sustainable Communities Premanufactured from Wood.

The exhibition, which features in the Lighthouse in Glasgow, will run until mid-January.

Featuring the work of students alongside examples from Carbon Dynamic and CCG, the exhibition explores why most new homes in Scotland are built using timber and its benefits in terms of construction sector jobs, environmentally efficient houses and faster building times.

The exhibition also shares student stories as part of the Built Environment Exchange, a programme established by Edinburgh Napier University to ‘accelerate change in construction culture’.

Andy Leitch, Scottish Forestry’s economic growth and skills development advisor said, “Today’s timber products combine the qualities of a natural resource with the high performance of modern building materials. Wood delivers on innovative design, speed, cost and resource efficiency, health & wellbeing, and offers a path to a low carbon economy.

“Wood is nature’s most versatile and sustainable building material and modern engineering methods expand possibilities for its application beyond traditional uses, as well as locking up carbon for the life of the building. Offsite timber construction and new engineered wood products are ideal options to produce good quality low carbon buildings and communities.

“Edinburgh Napier University’s exhibition highlights some of the innovative ways the construction talent of the future can use sustainable wood products and systems to address current and future building challenges supplying good quality affordable housing whilst responding positively to the climate change emergency.”

Timber Offsite Construction sits within Architecture & Design Scotland’s Materials Library at the Lighthouse, Glasgow. Free to enter, it is open from 10.30am to 5pm Monday to Saturday, and noon to 5pm Sunday.