University Engagement Programme: Challenges, the curriculum and climate literacy – a bright future for timber and engagement

Challenges, the curriculum and climate literacy: a bright future for timber and engagement

Tabitha Binding, TRADA’s University Engagement Manager, reports.

TRADA University Challenge 2020

Supported by major sponsors STEICO and Arnold Laver, sponsor Stora Enso, and supporters Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification UK, Passivhaus Trust, Western Timber Trade Association and Wood for Good, the 48-hour competition, which took place 17–19 February 2020, saw 58 students from universities across the UK gather at Cardiff University to compete to design, cost and engineer new homes. The brief given by Wales & West Housing Association for a large rural site at Adams Drive, Narberth, Pembrokeshire, laid out real-life constraints for the students to address: affordable housing that is low-carbon, energy and water efficient, climate resilient, healthy and desirable.

Each team consisted of student engineers, architects, architectural technologists, quantity surveyors and landscape architects, and received hands-on support from pioneering design professionals and industry members, including judges from Mikhail Riches, Cullinan Studio, Stride Treglown, Ramboll, Buro Happold, Entuitive, Gardiner & Theobald and PLAN:design.

Posters and models from the four winning teams displayed at Futurebuild in March attracted lots of attention and so lectures, talks and live projects were talked about, booked and then... Covid-19 took everything from on site to online almost overnight.

The curriculum

New curriculum guidelines for the development of engineering degree programmes, issued by the Joint Board of Moderators in March 2020, included a requirement to integrate sustainable development into existing teaching and learning, and stipulated that students must graduate aware of climate change, the low-carbon agenda and the effect of material choices. This has opened the door to timber being taught on a par with other construction materials. TRADA has consequently drawn together an online working group of engineering lecturers and professionals from across the UK to address the teaching of timber.

Engineering students undertaking a pilot module in the structural behaviour of timber beams. Photo: Tabitha Binding

Prior to the engineering working group being set up, a pilot of the module Structural tests on timber beams – developed by Dr Zhongwei Guan and Dr Jürgen Hackl at the University of Liverpool’s School of Engineering – took place. Working in small teams, 130 second-year engineering students undertook the module enabling them to understand the structural behaviour of timber beams with different grades and to learn how to conduct a structural test to obtain key parameters and characterise structural performance. Timber was donated by the North West Timber Trade Association and James Jones & Sons Limited.

The architecture curriculum is in the process of being updated with tensions developing around the call for more technical climate literate knowledge integration. Students, tutors, lecturers and professionals under the umbrella of Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) are campaigning to embed three aims into the curriculum: decarbonisation, ecological regeneration, cultural transformation.

Climate literacy

To encourage design students and their lecturers to become climate literate and understand how they have the power to greatly

reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases in the construction sector, TRADA ran a series of sold-out online workshops with the Anthropocene Architecture School, about Climate Literacy and the Built Environment, supported by ACAN student members. Participants from 47 universities took part, which led to a significant increase in TRADA membership and a big increase in students incorporating timber into their design projects.

A bright future

Covid-19 brought about uncomfortable changes, eroded certainties and challenged preconceptions. And yet 2020 was hugely positive, with increased collaboration and a willingness for academia, industry, professionals and associations to come together, to encourage, enthuse and educate. n

About the author

Tabitha Binding University Engagement Manager TRADA

Further information

The University Engagement Programme is supported by the Timber Trade Federation. Visit www.trada.co.uk/academic or email tbinding@trada.co.uk if you are a university lecturer or student who wants to ‘talk timber’.

Publications The best books on timber design and construction are available from the TRADA bookshop bookshop.trada.co.uk

TRADA’s latest publication is its first textbook aimed at university students and recent graduates. Designing timber structures: an introduction is an essential primer for those new to designing and engineering with timber. It is written in a clear and engaging style and the book’s notable strength is its full-colour illustrative detail that brings the subject to life.

Designing timber structures builds knowledge incrementally in a series of chapters and begins by exploring the material of timber itself, including its sustainable credentials. Chapters 2 and 3 consider timber design basics such as deflection, strength and calculating loads to enable the design of a timber floor and stud wall. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on two essential engineered timber products: glued laminated timber (glulam) and cross-laminated timber (CLT). The creation of these products as well as their application in design is discussed, including stability and bending. Connection design is covered in both the glulam and CLT chapters. In chapter 6, the authors address fire, acoustics, detailing and key considerations regarding timber in existing buildings. Chapter 7 completes the book with comprehensive further reading.

Designing timber structures is packed with more than 250 detailed drawings and photographs, plus over 40 pages of illustrated worked examples demonstrating how to design a timber floor, timber wall, glulam frame and CLT frame. An end-of-book glossary allows for easy cross-chapter reference of all key timber terms.

Manual for the design of timber building structures to Eurocode 5 2nd edition

Includes guidance on CLT, panels, composites, fasteners, fire and durability.

Off-site and industrialised timber construction 2nd edition

Examines the production concepts that can boost the efficiency of timber construction.

Timber frame construction 5th edition

The leading manual for professionals on conventional timber frame construction.

For more information on publications and standards available, visit bookshop.trada.co.uk or contact the bookshop on: +44 (0)1494 569 602 or email bookshop@bmtrada.com