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Third Level Student Wood Awards a major success

University of Ulster, Queen’s University Belfast and GMIT Letterfrack win main awards

Duncan Stewart, architect and RTE television presenter praised Irish students for incorporating wood in architecture, engineering and design projects at the 2011 Third Level Student Wood Awards in the RDS, Dublin. He said he was encouraged to see that almost all colleges were now taking part in the competition and urged the few remaining colleges to follow their example, because “wood is a proven sustainable material with major environmental benefits”.

The objective of the awards – organised by the Wood Marketing Federation in association with Wood-NI – is to encourage students to explore functional, aesthetic and design aspects of wood and wood products. The main sponsors are Coillte who also provide administrative support. Generous funding has been provided by COFORD, Department of Agriculture, Marine and Food the awards are also sponsored by the Society of Irish Foresters.

Nine students made it to the shortlist, representing universities and institutes of technology from Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Belfast, Lurgan, Bray and Limerick.
University of Ulster and Queen’s University Belfast won the architecture and engineering competitions, while the award for best design project went to GMIT Letterfrack. Read more>>

Woodspace at Timber Expo 2011 in Coventry

The Wood Marketing Federation timber pavilion, which was launched at the 2009 Plan Expo show in Dublin provided the exhibition space for the Irish delegation at Timber Expo 2011 in the Ricoh Arena, Coventry.

The exhibition which was commissioned by the Wood Marketing Federation in 2008 featured Irish wood using eased edged all over Sitka spruce sourced from Murray Timber. Designed by the award-winning architect Ciaran O’Connor, the result was widely acclaimed at the time by visitors to Plan Expo.

The Wood Marketing Federation was delighted that the show organisers, Willie Fitzgerald, Enterprise Ireland, Patrick Murray, Murray Timber Group and Richard Lowe, Coillte wished to use Woodspace as the central exhibition area for Irish companies at the Coventry event. The show was a huge success and featured WMF members Enterprise Ireland, Coillte, Grainger Sawmills, Murray Timber Group and Glennon Brothers.

Coillte Panel Products, a division of the Coillte Group launched an innovative and groundbreaking new product - Medite Tricoya – at the show.

2010-2012 wood promotion to 3rd level colleges

This project aims to expand wood in the 3rd level courses in architecture, engineering and design. It concentrates on the final two years of relevant courses in universities and institutes of technology.

It runs in tandem with the 3rd Level Student Awards and the response from the colleges has been very positive without exception. Sustainability is a major focus in the minds of the students and lecturers alike. Wood ticks all the boxes for them.

A number of colleges are prepared to increase their input of wood and wood related studies in their courses. Both National Universities – University College Dublin and University College Galway – have specifically agreed to provide more hours with wood input in their architectural and engineering courses as a result of our promotional drive.

Convincing other colleges that wood needs to be an inherent element of courses will take longer and we need to provide colleges with more support but the response has been positive.

A number of WMF members have agreed to co-operate with colleges in organising field days and study tours. For example, Waterford Institute of Technology students have visited SmartPly and WMF in association with Coillte and Murray Timber organised a field trip for relevant lecturers and administrators in UCD and NUIG last April.

Wood Marketing Federation at Electric Picnic

The Wood Marketing Federation promotes wood to a wide range of audiences in Ireland including industry partners, second and third level colleges, architects, engineers, designers and specifiers. For the past six years we have been reaching out to promote wood to all stakeholders at exhibitions, trade fairs and events such as Electric Picnic.

The Woodspace–Forest of Light project at Electric Picnic was a collaboration between Woodcollective-Meitheal Adhmaid and the Wood Marketing Federation (WMF). Both organisations share a vision: to promote wood as a key renewable design medium in 21st century sustainable living.

The Electric Picnic exhibition featured a ‘forest’ of 90 poles arranged in concentric circles sourced from Coillte. In the centre, the sculpture ‘Yggdrasil’ represented the world tree in Nordic cosmology. At the Electric Picnic Yggdrasil was created in wood from Glennon Brothers sawmill. This was the focal point to the exhibition especially when it was illuminated. Woodspace was designed to act as a meeting place for Electric Picnic visitors where they explored various aspects of timber design and usage and read all about it in the accompanying literature and information panels. Read more>>