Engineered timber structures in the UK

This paper examines the types of engineered timber structure being built in the UK and presents examples.
The UK is one of the world’s largest net importers of timber and timber products1. Whilst wood-based panels, including oriented strand board (OSB), wood chipboard and cement bonded particleboard and medium density fibreboard (MDF) and other fibreboard are all manufactured in UK, laminated timber products are largely imported. In some ways this is an advantage; there are many manufacturers of wood products and there are compet-ing suppliers for projects. On the other hand, the UK market is reliant on suppliers from outside the country providing sales and support services and products carry the burden of high transport costs.
We often overlook the more modest forms of structure used in domestic buildings, in favour of the more dramatic uses on landmark projects. This paper attempts to cover the whole range. It divides building types into those that incorporate engineered products into systems, those that use engineered systems and those that use customised prod-ucts. The designers and builders working in these three areas are quite distinct. The first type relies on high levels of repetition; the second on moderate levels and the third is for a customised, one-off structure.