Annual Conference 2004

Birmingham, 30th September 2004

Over 120 delegates met last month in Birmingham for an annual conference with the theme “Wood Procurement & Performance”. The annual conference, which is designed to appeal to a wide audience, attracted 55% of delegates from outside the Institute’s membership.

The one-day Conference was preceded by a guided tour of Symphony Hall, Birmingham, by the executive architect John Rudge, of Capita Percy Thomas, who worked on the project as executive architect. He gave a fascinating account of the challenges that were presented by a concert hall, alongside a mainline railway, in which absolute silence is required for concerts and recordings in which wood is part of the solution. This was followed by the President’s Dinner, at which Jim Coulson, IWSc President, paid tribute to the Director, Jim Lumsden, for his management of the Institute’s affairs over the past year and thanked Christine Bradshaw “in the usual way – with a bouquet of flowers” for all her work.

Jim Coulson, in his final conference as President, welcomed the sponsors, delegates, speakers and exhibitors after which the morning session comprised a panel of experts on wood procurement from BRE, DEFRA, TRADA and Forest Industries Intelligence. The session was chaired by Richard Lambert of the British Woodworking Federation and ended with a lively discussion on wood certification, codes and procurement issues. “The next few years may offer Bob Andrew, DEFRA the timber industry a chance that comes just once in a generation; and we need to tap into its advantages” he suggested. “With the Government’s commitment to sustainable buildings, timber offers the answers,” he added, but highlighted the need to reconcile all the forest certification schemes. Speaking

on government procurement policy Bob Andrew of DEFRA said that five schemes are currently being assessed but that evidence of sustainability should not be limited to certified wood. Dr Mike Packer called for more clarification on definitions from government and better information to be distributed. Dr Peter Bonfield, in presenting BRE’s BREAM and ECOHOMES systems said that “certification is an issue, but not the issue” when it comes to eco-building. Then he called upon wood to put its best foot forward or Certification and Codes Panel (L-R) Pete Ross, Rupert Oliver, and Chairman Richard Lambert, BWF lose out to the new “green” campaigns of competing materials such as concrete. He concluded to delegates that “this is a good time for timber.….but the trade is very passive, yet you have inherent advantages and have good things to say.” Rupert Oliver, giving an update on certification pointed to the 200 million ha of forest certified in only 10 years (and to the similarities between schemes rather that the differences), which needs to be celebrated. Finally the morning presentations ended with Peter Ross, President of TRADA chronicling the development of codes from old British to new Euro standards. Closing the morning session, Jim Coulson remarked that he had felt rather like attending a timber revivalist meeting !

The afternoon opened with a preview of The Wood Awards 2004 Shortlist presented by the organiser, Michael Buckley, and was followed by a presentation by Steve Powney of TTJ of the Timber Trades Journal Challenge Cup, awarded annually to the student who achieves that highest marks in the Certificate Course. This year it was awarded to joint winners Keith McDonough and Mark Turner, both of Howarth Timber.

The afternoon session, chaired by Dr. Peter Bonfield of BRE, featured three fascinating case studies of wood in performance. Gary Clark of Hopkins Architects discussed the long gestation of The Cake House (now renamed Inn The Park) in St. James’s Park, London. Ben Tuxworth, of Forum For The Future, gave an amusing and enlightening account of a sustainable house self-build project in Cheltenham. The session was rounded off by James Greaves, Director of Hopkins Architects, who gave an overview of three award winning buildings in the UK, with particular attention to the performance of the timbers used and Hopkins’ approach to wood performance.

The Conference marked the launch of IWSc’s new Certificate Course, which is based on distance learning with topic modules, tutorial support and continuous assessment. The Certificate Course is part of a portfolio of IWSc courses which provide progressive and fully integrated training in timber technology and timber trade practice.

Alongside the Conference, many of the eighteen sponsors, without whose valued support the event would not have been possible, exhibited with stands located in an adjacent exhibition area. The centre-piece of this was The Wood Awards 2004 displaying every short-listed project in detail. This year was the first in which the Institute of Wood Science has become a sponsor of The Wood Awards.

2005 will see the 50th year anniversary of the Institute, and accordingly, the Council is already looking forward to a jubilee Conference that will build on the successes of the last three conferences in Cardiff, Newcastle and Birmingham. The results from evaluation forms returned in Birmingham will be considered by the Council when planning this next conference.