‘Building from Forests’ explores the potential of natural and renewable materials in design and architecture
A new exhibit at London’s world-famous Victoria and Albert Museum features pioneering ENU research into the future of sustainable construction from UK-grown timber.
Led by architecture firm dRMM, Building from Forests showcases the output from three years of Forestry Commission funded research led by the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE) as part of broader collaboration including ENU, Built Environment – Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) and Ecosystems Technologies.
The exhibit is now open to visitors at the V&A in South Kensington. It is the fifth edition of its pioneering Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures programme, a 10-year project launched in 2022 with the support of designer and furniture maker John Makepeace OBE.
On show until the end of October 2026, the display in the museum’s Furniture Gallery has been transformed into an installation that makes a compelling case for building with underused UK-grown timber.
Through innovative material recipes, prototype building components and structural models, Building from Forests presents a new architectural toolkit, with the aim to create a more sustainable built environment, help strengthen local economies, and improve the resilience of UK forests.
The display brings to life research conducted with Edinburgh Napier University scientists into the properties and performance of the UK’s most prevalent hardwood species, including how this can be optimised with the more commercially available UK softwood resource. Through dynamic installations and infographics, the exhibit demonstrates the innate properties of seven UK timber varieties: birch, beech, ash, sycamore, oak, alder and sweet chestnut.
Hardwood species make up half of the UK’s forests, but most have little widespread industrial use beyond firewood or biomass. The majority of timber used in UK building is imported softwood from abroad.
Although conditions in the UK are ideal for mixed-species forests – which are much more resilient in the face of a changing climate – local timber resources are significantly under-harvested, largely because knowledge of how this hardwood can be used in building is still very limited.
This exhibition aims to engage the wider public and encourage a circular mindset to think more holistically about the UK’s approach to construction and the built environment.
The underpinning research to the dRMM exhibition was funded by Forestry Commission England and delivered in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University and the ENU-hosted Built Environment – Smarter Transformation (BE-ST), as well as NMITE and Ecosystems Technologies.
As well as producing detailed performance data for each species, it demonstrates that different timber species can be combined to create hybrid wood systems with specific attributes, paving the way for sustainable new methods of construction.
Anna Bates, Curator of Furniture and Product Design, 1900 – Now, V&A, said: “This temporary display in the V&A’s Furniture gallery is surrounded by historic furniture and woodwork by makers and designers who had an innate understanding of the timbers they were working with.
“dRMM’s research serves to remind us how divorced industry has become from this knowledge.
“It is a timely call to understand and revalue the properties of our underused local resources, and the systems in which they are grown, harvested and processed.
“The display gathers dRMM’s new findings in vivid and accessible ways to engage audiences in the debate around these pressing topics.”
The display is a core element of the V&As wider Make Good programme for 2025– 2026, which will include an annual symposium in March 2026, bringing together leading-edge thinking in sustainable forestry and material futures.
Edinburgh Napier University and timber construction
Building from Forests is the latest example of Edinburgh Napier University timber research making a positive difference to the sustainable construction sector.
ENU has been pushing this research agenda for decades, and the UK Government’s recent Timber in Construction Roadmap 2025 sets out a sector-wide plan to move this forward at scale.
The University’s internationally acclaimed work in timber engineering, sustainable construction and wood science claimed a Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2015, while it also played a significant role in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework assessment, which deemed ENU’s work to be “internationally excellent” and “world-leading”.
Last year ENU sustainable construction expert Professor Robert Hairstans was named Pioneer of the Year at the Structural Timber Awards for his trailblazing work in the sector. he is the founding Director of the University’s Centre for Advanced Timber Technologies at NMITE.
The last week also saw a consortium involving ENU and BE-ST awarded funding by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) for a new comprehensive training program aimed at rapidly accelerating timber construction skills across the UK.
Edinburgh Napier continues to lead pioneering research into industrialised timber and offsite construction solutions as host to BE-ST.
Above photos from the exhibit by Thomas Adank