The University is among partners who have secured funding to prove the business case for using Scottish timber to create the structural elements of buildings.
A consortium of partners – comprising Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC), Edinburgh Napier University’s Centre for Offsite Construction and Innovative Structures (COCIS), Scottish Forestry, Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor), and SNRG – has secured funding from Innovate UK’s Sustainable Innovation Fund to prove the business case for using Scottish timber to create the structural elements of buildings.
The initiative will manufacture the first Scottish-sourced cross laminated timber (CLT) and nail laminated timber (NLT) housing unit – including wall, roof, and floor – using the UK’s only vacuum press at CSIC’s 35,000-square-foot innovation factory in Hamilton. The aim is to ultimately lead to the mainstream use of home-grown timber in Scotland and the rest of the UK construction, as well as the development of the country’s first engineered timber manufacturing plant.
Set to complete by the end of 2020, the CLT and NLT superstructure will be showcased at next year’s COP26 United Nations conference on climate change, set to take place in Glasgow in November.
Professor Robert Hairstans, head of the COCIS, said: “Scotland has the renewable resource, internationally recognised expertise and technical capabilities necessary to be at the forefront of a new approach to delivering a sustainable built environment in response to the climate crisis.”
See articles: The Scotsman, Daily Business, The National, Construction Index, e-architect, PBC Today, Refurb & Developer Update, Scottish Business News, Scottish Construction Now, Construction Industry News, Project Scotland, Business Insider.
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