BUILD - Architecture Awards 2017

104 Build 2017 Architecture Awards uilding upon thirty years of accumulated academic and practical experience, architect Peter Wilson founded TDI in 2015 with the primary objective of encouraging innovation in timber design and construction. To achieve this, the company has three inter-connected services it provides to academia and industry; education, innovation and demonstration. With relation to education, TDI delivers objective and wholly independent knowledge, guidance and publication in both online and offline formats. It does this through the provision of structured Continuing Professional Education (CPE) programmes to architects, engineers and other construction professionals on all aspects of timber design and construction, embracing the latest engineered and modified timber technologies as well as more traditional building methods. Through the development of new engineered timber products and construction systems, TDI identifies innovative approaches to the use of timber in sustainable design, production and manufacture. The firm seeks to mainstream these through applied R&D collaborations with timber research centres/specialist university departments and private sector manufacturers throughout Europe. TDI seeks to publicly demonstrate advances in timber design and engineering through the construction of demonstration projects that utilise the timber products and systems developed within its innovation programme. Innovation lies at the heart of TDI’s work. The firm provides innovation in professional education for architects and engineers; innovation in the development and use of new, timber-based products and construction systems; and innovation in the demonstration and testing of the scientific and technological advances that have moved wood from perceptions of it being suited only to simple, low-cost buildings to the new and exciting, high- technology frontiers being opened by engineered timber products. Best Timber Architectural Design Specialists - Europe Timber Design Initiatives Ltd (TDI) delivers new approaches to education, innovation and the demonstration of best practice in the use of wood in architecture. We profiled the firm and found out what makes it so attractive to clients. Contact: Peter Wilson Contact Email: [email protected] Contact Email: [email protected] Contact Email: [email protected] Address: 90a Constitution Street, Edinburgh, EH6 6RP, UK Phone: 07960 281955 Website: timberdesigninitiatives.eu AR170108 B Each of TDI’s core services is grounded in the firm’s philosophy of ‘think global, act local’. Using this approach, the firm has embraced in order to translate the company’s awareness of advances in the world of timber research, design and construction into more local applications in the various European markets it works within. The aim of the firm is always to find opportunities for timber processors and product manufacturers to adapt emerging scientific and technological advances to their domestic construction market requirements and, where possible, to locally source the specific raw materials required. Complementing this ambition is the company’s goal of providing Europe-wide professional education and technical advice services to architects and engineers with a view to inspiring them to fully engage with new timber technologies in their design thinking. With its focus on innovation, the sharing of internationally-generated ideas and knowledge through a structured approach to knowledge transfer is fundamental to the work and success of TDI. Through its ongoing programme of conferences, lectures, presentations, seminars and workshops for its target audience of architects and engineers, the company brings together key players in the manufacturing and construction sectors to share their experience of the processes and timescales involved and the obstacles to be overcome in taking first ideas through to market reality. The methodology employed aims to draw out new thoughts and possible solutions to contemporary challenges, whether in the housing or other sectors, and to filter these ideas into applied research and development projects attractive to both industry funders and related government/EU support programmes. The first two decades of the 21st century have so far witnessed remarkable and significant changes in the construction industry, changes that have impacted internationally, and none more so than in the way new and advanced timber technologies have altered perceptions of how, and what, can be built with engineered timber and other timber-based products and systems. Engineering and scientific developments have also combined to reposition the Earth’s forest resources within the wider drive to sustainably manage