Industry Services
Industry Services
Anna Lisa McSweeney
UK Network Lead
The UK’s timber construction sector is entering a new phase—where manufacturing capability, carbon data, and design excellence align. Anna Lisa McSweeney highlights why a new national centre, new metrics, and new partnerships are driving mass timber forward.
In 2025, the UK marked a turning point for sustainable construction with the launch of the Mass Timber Centre of Excellence at the BE-ST Campus in Hamilton, Scotland.1 Backed by a £1.5 million investment from the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council, and developed in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University, the Centre aims to build national capacity for the design, prototyping and manufacture of mass timber building systems.
The facility houses the UK’s largest CNC machine for timber processing, alongside a high-powered extraction system and structural testing—delivering the infrastructure needed to accelerate production of homegrown glulam, CLT, NLT and hybrid timber systems.1 It is also now spearheading critical research into fire safety in mass timber buildings, thanks to a further £190k grant from Built by Nature.
More than an equipment upgrade, the Centre represents a strategic shift. It places manufacturing at the heart of a whole-system approach to construction—linking research, fabrication, regulation and training. As Sam Hart, Associate Director at BEST, explains in an article for Scottish Construction Now (16 May 2025).
“The launch of the Centre is a testament to years of collaborative innovation, helping to validate mass timber as a high-value construction method,”
The launch comes at a time when mass timber is gaining credibility across the UK’s development pipeline—not just as a material innovation, but as a performance-led solution to the climate, housing and productivity crises.
Running parallel to the Centre’s manufacturing ambition is a growing focus on how we measure and evaluate timber building performance. Leading that conversation is the 2024 Measuring Mass Timber study, led by dRMM in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University, the Quality of Life Foundation, and supported by Built by Nature.
The study examined five completed UK mass timber buildings, selected as part of the Measuring Mass Timber study, spanning uses from transport to worship, education and workplace. Each project was assessed using a bespoke framework that evaluated not only embodied carbon, but also spatial quality, adaptability, and user experience.
Key findings included:
Critically, the report calls for industry-wide improvements in data collection, lifecycle tracking, and consistent carbon methodologies. Without these, it argues, timber’s environmental and social value risks being under-reported and undervalued in policy and procurement decisions.
As the funder of both the Measuring Mass Timber project and a project within BE-ST’s national centre, Built by Nature plays a central role in aligning innovation with systemic change.
Through our Fund, we have supported a suite of research which is changing the way the sector uses timber, including:
Together, these actions signal a coordinated shift: from timber as an “alternative” material to timber as a credible foundation for 21st-century construction.
The growing momentum behind mass timber in the UK is not being driven by a single actor or agenda, but by a collective effort to gather evidence, test systems, and develop capabilities across the value chain.
Initiatives like the Measuring Mass Timber study offer a rare example of rigorous post-occupancy research focused specifically on mass timber buildings. Evaluating both carbon performance and occupant wellbeing, the study provides an accessible model for how to assess whole-life value in timber architecture.
In parallel, institutions such as BE-ST, through the new Mass Timber Centre of Excellence, are helping to address practical and logistical challenges—offering manufacturers and designers a shared space for testing, prototyping and training. With support from the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council, this centre aims to close the gap between innovation and implementation by anchoring R&D within an active, industry-facing campus.
Meanwhile, funding from organisations such as Built by Nature has supported projects that help bridge the knowledge gaps that still exist around insurability, biogenic carbon accounting, and lifecycle methodologies5-6. These projects—along with emerging digital tools and open-source publications—signal a shift toward shared learning and transparency.
Rather than positioning mass timber as a single solution, these collaborative efforts reflect a more nuanced and systems-based approach. They support the wider integration of timber into UK construction by making information, performance data and technical guidance more available to developers, insurers, clients and design teams alike.
“We’re moving beyond prototypes—towards a mass timber sector defined by evidence, not exception.”
While technical performance is essential, systemic enablers— like funding, insurance, and standardisation—are equally critical. Here we are seeing evidence that Built by Nature has played a catalytic role. We have heard from developers that they are using the guidebooks and tools are being used onsite to help different actors in the value chain collaborate and spot issues before they emerge. It is therefore unsurprising that the Mass Timber Insurance Playbook has been downloaded once every two hours since it was launched and was independently reprinted in the United States.
With its combination of manufacturing capability, evidence- led design evaluation, and mission-aligned partnerships, the UK is entering a new phase in the evolution of mass timber construction.
The BE-ST Mass Timber Centre of Excellence offers not just new tools—but new possibilities. The Measuring Mass Timber report gives us a language and framework to assess those possibilities through the lens of real performance. Meanwhile Built by Nature, Woodknowledge Wales and others are helping unlock systemic obstacles—whether around insurance, policy or procurement.
Together, we are shifting the UK’s timber conversation from novelty to necessity. From embodied savings to quality of life. From case studies to codes.
Mass timber in the UK has momentum. The next step is to deliver that momentum with precision, accountability and care.
