A key construction milestone has been reached with the completion of the timber frame at the University of East Anglia's Low Carbon Enterprise Centre.

The scheme, which is being managed by the Adapt Low Carbon Group and delivered by principal contractor Morgan Sindall, is leading the way in low carbon construction.

The structural frame was constructed by Cygnum and made with timber sourced from local Thetford Forest. The Morgan Sindall project team collaborated with Cygnum, The Forestry Commission and Thomson Saw Mills to take lumber that isn’t generally used for timber frame construction and use it to compose some of the structural elements of the building.

Gavin Napper, area director for Morgan Sindall said: "People have generally shied away from using local timber in construction, doubting its suitability as a construction material. We wanted to challenge that perception and tap into the great resources which are available locally.


"Due to the area's climate and soil conditions, timber sourced from East Anglia tends to be fast growing Corsican Pine, which has a number of characteristics that make it more challenging than timber sourced from further afield and so does not lend itself as easily to this type of structural frame. However, our team was committed to using local timber and so we conducted extensive research, which enabled us to sort, condition and grade the Thetford timber which we used to construct the building's frame."

Once the timber had been sourced from Thetford Forest, located just 30 miles from the Enterprise Centre site, it was processed and sawn locally in Thomson Saw Mills, north of Norwich. The timber was then sent to Ireland, as local kilns were unable to meet the drying regimes necessary to bring the timber to the required moisture content. There it was kiln dried, planed and strength graded to meet the structural engineer’s pre-determined requirements.

The Enterprise Centre project is an Exemplar Low Carbon Building, targeting BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) Outstanding and Passivhaus Certification (the global standard for energy efficient, low-carbon buildings).

(CD/IT)