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A Passion for Timber When it comes to promoting timber to those who know absolutely nothing about this ancient material, there is no better expert than Benfield ATT managing director Dr Michael Benfield. A passionate advocate of the many advantages that timber has over other construction methods, it's not long before you are carried along with his enthusiasm about the beauty of wood. His lifelong passion has always been timber. "I've always had a love of trees and timber, having grown up around timber mills, tree nurseries and in joinery works," he says. "You could say I've got sawdust both in my nostrils and my veins. Wood is just a beautiful, warm, friendly and forgiving material to work with." A True Carpenter & Builder Surrounded by the aesthetics of wood from an early age, it was after leaving school that he started an apprenticeship as a carpenter and builder to pursue his interest in timber. In those days, the material was seen as a niche material, with many builders, architects and developers preferring to use steel, concrete or brick in their building projects. Dr Benfield, however, did not exactly follow the trend of his fellow construction professionals. He was such a firm believer in timber that he soon established his own business as a fore-runner to Benfield ATT, in the early 1960s. "The only thing that mattered to me in my career at that time was proving timber could provide enormous benefits within the construction industry," he says. "This led me to founding a company that grew to be a major regional homebuilder and contractor, employing about 1,500 people. Through the business I built my first timber framed houses in the mid-60s and continued to build housing developments, as well as public sector buildings, for private sale throughout the Midlands, North West and East Anglia." National Awards This won his then company a number of national housing and Civic Trust awards. His aim was always to show that timber engineered structures have the credentials to become a mainstream method of construction. But convincing a sceptical UK construction industry to make greater use of timber has not been that easy, especially in the housing sector, Dr Benfield argues. "Across the developed world, for example, on average 70 per cent of new homes are built through timber frame construction. By that we can learn from other countries in terms of the wider use and application of the material. This is because over here only 20 per cent of the 120,000 new homes built annually by the industry are timber frame - and that shows the UK has yet to fully embrace timber as a modern building method." Construction’s Environmental Impact In the current political climate, the impact of construction on the environment has become a major concern to the Government after its landmark Energy White Paper was published. With levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) increasing significantly in the atmosphere in the last 100 years, the Government has pledged to reduce C02 emissions by an extra 12 million tonnes through energy efficient means over the next six years. As it stands, the UK is releasing 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year, and construction professionals have therefore been required to consider environmental performance when selecting materials, processes and systems. Sustainable Timber the Answer It is here that Dr Benfield urges building designers, contractors and owners to look no further than timber frame construction as the perfect solution for the 21st century. "Timber is both the only renewable building resource on the planet and the most environmentally stable, since trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breath out oxygen, they improve the atmosphere - the very air that we breathe. "In doing so, they also lock up carbon - the C part of CO2 - for ever, or at least until the timber is burned, which can be a very, very long time, since it can be recycled and used for many other applications if the timber-based buildings are taken down." BRE & Wood for Good Dr Benfield's message that wood products actually achieve greater negative net CO2 emissions than other building materials is also endorsed by major timber organisations. A recently published report by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) commissioned by the Wood for Good campaign, showed that timber is the single most environmentally friendly building material around. According to the BRE, "all of the sawn timber products have negative (good) climate change impacts to the point of leaving the factory gate". “Non-timber construction materials, on the other hand, have no doubt contributed to the rising levels of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere”, Dr Benfield continued "We have long recognised the connection between global warming and the immense embodied energy of steel and wet construction methods. As builders, we have a moral obligation to provide high quality timber frame homes, which will increase the quality of life and influence impact on the environment for generations to come. Timber is ‘Green’ and Saves Energy "Timber is a good insulator, so this makes designing and building more energy efficient buildings a lot easier. As for linking the environmental and cost aspects, manufactured timber components contain only around 14 per cent embodied energy, as against bricks, blocks and concrete with 80 per cent and steel, which can clock in at around 95 per cent." Another notable green feature of timber-frames is that they can be manufactured off-site when producing such components as panels and cassettes. This means construction sites are smaller, safer and cleaner with less on-site waste and fewer deliveries required during building work. Having worked on many timber-based schemes, Dr Benfield reckons timber is hardly affected by the bad weather. "Frost and rain never bother us and only the severest depth of snow can stop me and my builders from working." “This ensures faster erection, less interruptions, minimal maintenance, greater all-round economies and most importantly, more satisfied customers”, he explains, adding “It is the most perfect material to worth with” "It's relatively light, which means that large section components can be used to put buildings up quickly, along with lighter weight, lower costs foundations that could make savings of over 50 per cent. In addition, it is a versatile material and can be combined with other modern construction methods, providing fast, understandable solutions for many building problems. Timber is such a warm, glowing material that it begs to be seen." Thanks to these qualities, Benfield ATT has been appointed by a number of clients who are won over by timber's environmental credentials, versatility, strength and aesthetics. The company is currently developing advanced ecological designs using curved glulam beams for a nature reserve project in the UK, as well as for a Mediterranean-style village complex in Croatia. Housing Export Potential Dr Benfield is also hopeful of securing work in the health sector in the slowly recovering Iraq. "Since this will be a supply contract, we are looking to build suitable training facilities for their workers. This will also fit in with the development of our own in-house training programme for specialist timber frame erectors. The training parallels work being undertaken by the UKTFA in Scotland and will, in itself, lead to national vocational qualifications (NVQ) 4, 5 and 'Master Timber Frame Erectors' qualifications." Quality Timber Frames for UK In the housing sector, Benfield ATT continues to build quality timber-based housing developments across the country. For example, the company has recently completed a new build scheme of energy efficient Victorian-style homes and Mews-style flats in Bedfordshire. It has also built two new luxury detached timber-frame homes - known as St Luke's Field - in Somerset. Both properties include double-glazing, oil fired central heating, fully-fitted kitchens and large double garages. When quizzed on whether timber frame construction can help solve the current housing shortage, Dr Benfield believes it can - but only if the Government and local authorities deliver more land on a continuous and reliable basis to put the new timber frame homes on. Continuous Supply of Housing Land Needed "There is no sense producing another 140,000 homes a year, as leading economist Kate Barker asks, only for them to be stacked up in storage yards and sheds, which is what happens when cars are over produced," he says. While timber frame construction has been accepted as the building norm in such developed countries as Canada, Sweden, USA and Germany, the UK construction sector has been slow on the uptake. For now, Dr Benfield, like many other industry experts, will be doing his part to encourage architects, developers and contractors that timber is the most versatile and graceful material to use for the future of construction.
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