From a woodland primary school, a low-carbon community centre and a modular home in the wilderness of Scotland, through to a communal table for pounding fufu, this year’s Wood Awards shortlist reflects the versatility of timber.
First established in 1971, the Wood Awards are the UK’s foremost competition celebrating outstanding architecture, structures, furniture items and objects made using wood.
From more than two hundred entries, eighteen buildings and fifteen furniture projects were selected by our judging panel of leading architects, engineers, designers, artists, critics and sustainability experts.
Ranging from a multi-storey light industrial workspace to a tiny hand-built woodland sauna, and from high-tech low-waste lounge chairs to intimately crafted sculptures, this expansive and inspiring shortlist represents the best in British timber design, craftsmanship and installation.
The awards are split into two main categories: Buildings and Furniture & Objects. Buildings are further split into: Commercial & Leisure, Education & Public Sector, Interior, Private Sector, Restoration & Reuse and Small Project. Within Furniture & Objects there are four subcategories: Bespoke, Production, Student Designer and, from this year, Sculptured Objects.
Opening an exciting new door for the Wood Awards, the introduction of the Sculptured Objects category will provide a platform for makers to push the boundaries of traditional woodworking and explore new forms of expression.
Each of the shortlisted projects, listed below, will now be viewed and assessed in-person by our expert panel of independent judges. Winners and highly commended projects will be selected from all ten categories. These projects will then be considered for the Gold Award – the UK’s best timber building – and the Structural Award, as well as for Sustainability and Research & Innovation Awards, given at the judges’ discretion.
The shortlisted Buildings for the Wood Awards 2024 are:
- Bough Terrace, London (Tuckey Design Studio). A refurbished Victorian terrace in which new timbers have been layered with old to create tactile and intriguing interiors.
- Brighton Dome Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre, Brighton (Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios). Updating a historic arts centre for a 21st century audience, this project includes the restoration of the UK’s longest single-span timber-frame.
- Bristol Beacon, Bristol (Levitt Bernstein). A Victorian concert hall which has been thoroughly refurbished and reimagined as a world-class performance venue.
- Castle Community Rooms, Suffolk (James Gorst Architects). A new multipurpose village hall that employs regenerative design principles to meet the local community’s needs.
- Clare College, Cambridge (Witherford Watson Mann). An intricate oak-framed extension providing a new wing for Cambridge’s second oldest college.
- The Drying Shed Sauna, Battle (Built Works). Tucked away in a woodland clearing, this sauna has been hand-built using readily available natural materials.
- Exeter College Library, Oxford (Nex-). A series of thoughtful interventions, including a sculptural timber balcony, have updated and improved this Grade-II listed college library.
- Haileybury SciTech, Hertford (Hopkins Architects). A forward-looking science and technology campus that integrates new mass-timber framed elements with existing school buildings.
- High Havens Farm, Barnsley (BPN Architects). A hybrid structure timber-concrete contemporary farmhouse that sits at the centre of a regenerated Cotswold farm.
- House in the Woods, Lisburn (Studio idir). This private timber home creates a tranquil environment for its inhabitants to grow old with independence, surrounded by nature.
- Liberty Woodland School, London (Wimshurst Pelleriti). A series of light-touch demountable structures made from locally sourced timber that provide shelter for outdoor learning.
- Niwa House, London (Takero Shimazaki Architects). This newbuild family home features a novel low-carbon roof structure combining oak glulam frame and stone.
- Old School House, Somerset (Bindloss Dawes Architects). A highly crafted timber-framed and clad building which sympathetically extends an existing stone house.
- Pembroke Mill Lane (Phase 1), Cambridge (Haworth Tompkins Ltd). Striking timber interventions knit together historical buildings of Pembroke College to provide a cohesive college environment.
- Rhodes House Garden Pavilion, Oxford (Stanton Williams). Blending structural ingenuity with striking beauty, this glass and timber pavilion provides a ‘garden room’ for scholars and the public to meet.
- Uist House, Isle of North Uist (Koto Design/Hiraeth Architecture). Perfectly designed for its dramatic Outer Hebridean climate, this modular home is built from Welsh-grown timber.
- W3, King’s Cross, London (Haptic Architects). This fully accessible new community building offers a wide range of amenities for King’s Cross residents and visitors.
- WorkStack, London (dRMM). A mass timber project offering a pioneering new model for creating high-density industrial space on compact urban sites.
Jim Greaves, head of the Buildings judging panel, says: “The quality and breadth of this year’s Wood Awards entries has made the selection process an exciting and difficult challenge for our judges.
“From a longlist of 80 entries, we have selected 18 projects across a wide range of typologies which demonstrate the creativity and talent of contemporary timber design and construction in the UK.
“Each year it is interesting to see the innovative ways the industry is responding to the crucial challenges of our time, not least the climate crisis. Entwining environmentally conscious design principles with good design, these projects reveal the special role that wood can play in creating a more sustainable built environment.
“All shortlisted schemes will be exhibited at the upcoming Wood Awards exhibition at the Material Matters fair being held as a part of the London Design Festival.”
