designTimber is a monthly lunchtime webinar series in which leading architects, engineers and timber specialists deliver in-depth presentations on their award-winning timber buildings.
Organised by Timber Development UK, these free online talks provide valuable continuous professional development (CPD) learning for designers and specifiers.
Running from February to September, the new series will showcase a diverse range of projects in unique settings across the UK – from an acoustic pavilion in a Norfolk woodland, to an infill social housing development in Hackney, and a pedestrian bridge spanning a rejuvenated London dockland.
Selected from the shortlisted and winning projects of the Wood Awards 2025, the programme will feature Feilden Fowles’ Urban Nature Project at the Natural History Museum, Thomas-McBrien and New Wave London’s New Wave House, Lynch Architect’s Westminster Coroner’s Court, Asif Khan and Whitby Wood’s Rafter Walk, Al-Jawad Pike and Momentum’s Chowdhury Walk, and Unknown Works’ Armadillo.
The series begins on 11 February with a presentation on the Gold Award-winning Urban Nature Project. Attendees will hear directly from the architect, structural engineer and timber specialist subcontractor about how two new buildings – a public café and an educational pavilion – were integrated into the ambitious re-landscaping of the Natural History Museum’s grounds.
Combining glue-laminated and homegrown solid Douglas fir with British limestone, and finished with Western Red Cedar cladding, the project is a masterclass in low-embodied-carbon, craft-led design that supports local supply chains.
Throughout the series, a wide range of critical timber topics will be explored through real-life case studies, including how timber construction can support the extension and reuse of existing buildings, the use of durable sustainably sourced tropical hardwoods in marine environments, acoustics, and design for disassembly.
Offering a behind-the-scenes look at some of the best recent timber architecture and construction, these free-to-attend CPD talks form an important part of TDUK’s mission: to educate and inspire architects, engineers and built-environment professionals to build better through intelligent timber design.
The designTimber talks are programmed by TDUK.
