Industry Services
Industry Services
Dr Liz Walder, Events, Woodknowledge Wales
Woodknowledge Wales
On these pages, Dr Liz Walder showcases a number of award-winning designs that share one feature: timber is key to their construction. Extraordinary architectural ambition and design vision can be seen in the aspect and details of each of these buildings.
This year we highlight the 2026 RIBA Royal Gold Medallist, Níall McLaughlin, whose work is renowned for his inventive use of timber in buildings such as the New Library at Magdalene College, Jacob’s Ladder in the Chilterns and the Bishop Edward King Chapel, where he blends craftsmanship, light, and natural materiality to create meaningful, contextually rooted architecture.
Other award-winning schemes range from the first Passivhaus Plus home in the north west, Copper Beech in Salford; to the cutting-edge timber design at the Paradise building in London which sets a new standard for eco-friendly workspaces; to the River Tay Boathouse which showcases timber design and creativity within a tough environment; and five custom built homes at Rotherby Manor in rural Leicestershire created by a group of homeowners who came together to bring their vision of building their own oak frame home a reality.
Alongside its natural beauty, timber is strong and sustainable. It enhances spaces with warmth and longevity, while offering a durable and efficient option for construction projects. As a renewable building material, timber is durable, sturdy and quicker to work with in the construction supply chain.
The stunning, award-winning structures highlighted in these pages show off the finest designs, showcasing the artistry, craftsmanship and warmth of timber.
Winner of the Small project category at the Wood Awards 2025, The Armadillo was conceived as a sound pavilion for the Houghton Music Festival. Built from eucalyptus and pine CLT, this pioneering curved structure showcases innovation in eco-friendly design, sound dynamics, and modern timber engineering.
The first permanent outdoor CLT structure globally to use a hybrid of timber species, the Armadillo is crafted from 42 prefabricated CLT panels that interlock to form self-supporting modular arches, offering a sustainable and low-carbon solution for festivals and pavilions.
Architect: Unknown Works
Structural Engineer: Studio Allen
Wood Supplier: Xilonor CLT
Delivery and Installation Partner: ConstruktCLT
Contractor: Klimstar Building Company
Species: Radiata Pine (Spain), Eucalyptus (Spain)
Designed around a south facing courtyard, Copper House is a net-zero energy building that generates as much energy as it consumes, powered by a 5kW air-source heat pump and 40 solar panels.
Built with a pre-fabricated timber frame, recycled newspaper insulation, and an insulated raft foundation, Copper House features triple glazing, advanced ventilation, and superior insulation for outstanding comfort and efficiency, crafted to last for generations.
Architect: Progress in Practice
Structural Engineer: Build Collective
Wood Supplier: MBC Timber Frame Ltd
Contractor: Bailey Projects
Species: Twin stud/rafter timber frame filled with recycled newspaper; charred larch cladding; western red cedar porch and brises soleil; oak stair treads; engineered oak flooring; maple ply kitchen, reveals and wardrobes
Located close to Waterloo Station, Paradise is the UK’s largest mass timber office building completed under stricter fire regulations. Its visible CLT and glulam structure redefines safety and architectural innovation.
The low-embodied carbon timber frame is a central architectural and technical feature. Its design demanded detailed coordination between structure, services and architecture. Extensive use of prefabrication, precise moisture management, and carefully sequenced installation ensured a flawless finish.
Architect: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Structural Engineer: Webb Yates
Wood Supplier: Stora Enso | Hasslacher
Contractor: Gilbert Ash
Species: CLT and glulam, spruce, Austria
This structure is a true community building, bringing together more than 100 local volunteers, including local schoolchildren, who helped assemble the structure in a meaningful and safe way.
Using a zero-carbon, modular WikiHouse design, Peel Park Community Centre is the ultra-low-carbon building, providing vibrant community spaces including a park café, offices and meeting rooms within a carefully detailed and durable structure.
Architect: Architecture Unknown
Structural Engineer: ING Design
Contractor: Construction Solutions
Species: WISA Spruce plywood (WikiHouse)
Crafting a timber design inside an old masonry boathouse on a tidal river proved an interesting challenge, and the new River Tay Boathouse stands out as a remarkable result.
The sculptural frame that shapes the living space uses a palette of carefully selected, local trees, chosen for their strength and suitability. To protect the woodland, timber was extracted using Belgian draft horses with a temporary sawmill set up close to the build. The boathouse was taken to site and built by the clients, their architects and friends in a true “barn raising” community style event.
Architect: Barboza Blanco
Engineer: Bernabeu Ingenieros
Wood Supplier: Carpenter Oak
Species: Local Scottish green Douglas fir and larch
Rotherby Manor stands out from the usual architectural design, as the vision was shaped by client ideas, with each of the five oak-framed custom homes offering a uniquely personal retreat.
Taking a personalised approach, each of the five clients enjoyed the freedom to modify their home designs, adjusting layouts, materials, and finishes, as the design team guided them throughout the self-build process.
Architect: Oakwrights
Contractor: Bowbridge Homes and Oakwrights
Species: Oak and softwood timber frame, WrightWall and WrightRoof
Timber has long been at the heart of RIBA Royal Gold Medal-winning architecture. Here are just a few more examples.
Winning the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for innovative and inventive use of timber in buildings is nothing new. Villa Mairea in Noormarkku, Finland by the 1957 medallist, Alvar Aalto is certainly an ode to timber. Designed in 1939 the building incorporates a number of rich timber elements, including teak, Finnish pine, and rattan-wrapped wooden columns that echo the surrounding birch tree forest.
Villa Mairea is seen as a significant dwelling that marks a transition from traditional to modern architecture, and Aalto’s medal citation attributed his “outstanding ability to bring a human quality and gentleness to modern architectural technology”.
Originally known as an architect of advanced modern technology and one of the youngest medallists, the 1983 winner, Norman Foster, has now turned his attention to working with timber. Opened in 2016, Maggie’s Centre Manchester by Foster + Partners features an exposed timber structure of lightweight lattice beams and 17 sculptural wooden portal frames that create warm, home-like naturally lit spaces.
The technical challenge of the Downland Gridshell by Cullinan Studio, opened in 2002, became a new architectural idiom for the countryside. Royal Gold Medallist from 2008, Ted Cullinan conceived the original peanut shape of the building with the double-curved shell design formed by slender, green oak laths. The gridshell has become widely admired and frequently visited, earning major awards and international recognition for its innovative timber design and construction.
Architectural practice O’Donnell & Tuomey, winners of the Royal Gold Medal in 2015, have been working in timber for over 30 years. The delightful Passage House from 2022 is an experimental open-air pavilion built from locally sourced stone, timber and thatch, celebrating Irish vernacular craftsmanship through hands-on collaboration with local makers, and is in direct contrast to the timber structure at the recently completed Liverpool School of Architecture, expressed internally as a defining architectural element.
Royal Gold Medallists from 2020, Grafton Architects designed the Anthony Timberlands Center for the University of Arkansas. This building showcases a dramatic mass-timber structure defined by cross-laminated southern yellow pine panels and monumental glulam beams that double as rain-carrying gutters, expressing Grafton Architects’ “storybook of timber” concept.
In architectural design, one tends to reference the past and the portfolio of the 2026 Royal Gold Medallist is no exception. Níall McLaughlin’s approach to timber is influenced by his deep respect for material craft and tradition, evident in projects where he explores timber’s structural clarity, atmospheric warmth, and its capacity to create meaningful, human-centred spaces.
The domestic dwelling of Jacob’s Ladder in the Chilterns from 2001 incorporates timber to help the house merge with its beech-and-holly woodland setting, enhancing its tree-house-like character.
Won in an open competition in 2009, the Bishop Edward King Chapel at Ripon Theological College is an elliptical, light-filled worship space defined by its soaring, tree-like timber columns that create a serene, woodland-inspired interior.
Winner of the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize, McLaughlin’s New Library at Magdalene College features finely crafted engineered timber elements that bring warmth, structural elegance, and a cohesive rhythm to its interconnected reading spaces.
A worthy winner of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for 2026.
