Students from Kildare crowned winners at inaugural Future Timber Design Awards

placeholder image — Students from Kildare crowned winners at inaugural Future Timber Design Awards | FILE PHOTOGRAPH / PIXABAY

The entries were judged by TU Dublin lecturers and representatives from Forest Industries Ireland

Three students hailing from County Kildare were crowned winners at the first-ever Future Timber Design Awards.

Cael Chanders from Naas, Aran Gahan from Ardclough, and Seppyoggi Rutendo Mutetwa from Kildare Town were announced as TU Dublin winners at the Future Timber Design Awards, which is a new initiative by Forest Industries Ireland (FII).

The awards ceremony took place inside TU Dublin on Friday, June 5 last.

The Future Timber Design Awards was set up by FII in an attempt to encourage sustainable and innovative timber design and construction.

The programme works to bridge the gap between academic learning and real-world application.

PROJECTS

Cael, together with Úna Duffy, from Portarlington, County Laois, are sustainable timber technology students at TU Dublin.

They won the ‘Best Use of Homegrown Timber Award’ for their joint project, which focused on producing a modular bus shelter constructed using primarily Irish-grown timber.

Their contemporary design drew on traditional Irish woodworking and rural timber structures as inspiration and supported a circular life cycle model by utilising locally produced materials to reduce environmental impact, while still creating a strong long-lasting and functional structure.

As for Aran, he is an architectural technology student at TU Dublin, was awarded the ‘Best Technical Realisation Award’ for his Irish-grown timber cladding panel design.

This incorporated an old traditional Japanese wood preservation method called ‘shou sugi ban’.

Following a carbon neutral procedure, this environmentally friendly method increases the lifecycle of the cladding while also giving it a strong water resistance property, suitable for the Irish climate.

Pictured being presented with the 'Best Use of Homegrown Timber Award' at the inaugural Forest Industries Ireland Future Timber Design Awards at a ceremony at TU Dublin on Friday, June 5 last are Úna Duffy from Lea, Portarlington, County Laois and Cael Chanders from Naas, County Kildare (centre) with (L-R): Joseph Little, Head of Construction, School of Architecture, Building and Environment, TU Dublin; Des O’Toole, Head of Marketing and Promotion at Coillte Forests; Dr Sameer Mehra, Programme Coordinator of the BSc Sustainable Timber Technology and a Lecturer in Timber Technologies and Wood Manufacturing at the School of Architecture, Building and Environment at TU Dublin; Mark McAuley, Director of Forest Industries Ireland; and Damien Cross, Lecturer, Timber Technologies and Wood Manufacturing, School of Architecture, Building and Environment, TU Dublin | PHOTO CREDIT: E O'DALY / OUTDOOR STUDIO

Lastly, Seppyoggi, together with Christopher McCann from Stillorgan, Dublin, are sustainable timber technology students at TU Dublin, who received an ‘Honourable Mention’ for their joint project.

Their project focused on designing a sustainable bus stop shelter incorporating Irish home-grown timber. Their design used limited components to ensure that assembly and disassembly were easily accessible and incorporated both modern techniques and historical timber culture practices.

Des O’Toole, the Head of Marketing and Promotion at Coillte Forests, presented the awards to the Kildare students, and also claimed that, next year, the awards will expand to welcome entries from other universities, thus ‘broadening the reach and impact of the programme’.

Congratulating the Kildare winners, Mark McAuley, the director of Forest Industries Ireland, said: “This awards programme highlights the enormous potential of Irish-grown timber in the future of construction.

“Locally sourced timber can deliver not only sustainability and strong structural performance, but also ambitious, innovative design.”

Pictured being presented with the Best Technical Realisation award at the Forest Industries Ireland Future Timber Design Awards at a ceremony at TU Dublin on Friday, June 5 last is Aran Gahan from Ardclough, County Kildare with Joseph Little, Head of Construction, School of Architecture, Building and Environment, TU Dublin; Des O’Toole, Head of Marketing and Promotion at Coillte Forests; Dr Sameer Mehra, Programme Coordinator of the BSc Sustainable Timber Technology and a Lecturer in Timber Technologies and Wood Manufacturing at the School of Architecture, Building and Environment at TU Dublin; Mark McAuley, Director of Forest Industries Ireland; and Damien Cross, Lecturer, Timber Technologies and Wood Manufacturing, School of Architecture, Building and Environment, TU Dublin | PHOTO CREDIT: E O'DALY, OUTDOOR STUDIO

Mr McAuley further said: “Projects like these from our next generation of architects, engineers, manufacturing and timber processing professionals demonstrate why it is so important to cultivate skills development and to continue investing in and supporting Ireland’s forestry and timber industry.”

FURTHER DETAILS

The entries were judged by TU Dublin lecturers and FII representatives.

The overall winner received a ‘Future Timber Design Awards’ trophy and a €600 prize, while runners-up across different categories received cash prizes, with certificates presented to all participants.

According to the organisers, applicants were given 18 weeks to conceptualise and design their projects and were supported via Q&A drop-in sessions during the design phase, guest lectures on timber-led construction, and access to digital resources on sustainable timber systems.