A three-year research project, known as Building from England’s Woodlands (BFEW), found that underused English hardwoods can be safely used in structural applications, potentially reducing reliance on imported materials.
England’s underused deciduous woodlands could play a much larger role in supplying materials for low-carbon buildings, according to a new research project.
The three-year Building from England’s Woodlands (BFEW) initiative examined how homegrown timber could be used more effectively in modern construction systems and found that English hardwoods can be suitable for structural applications when appropriately selected and specified.
The project was funded by the Forestry Commission’s Woods into Management Forestry Innovation Fund and brought together experts from forestry, wood science, timber manufacturing, architecture and construction.
David Bole, head of green economy and skills at the Forestry Commission, said England’s woodlands represented “a national asset” with the potential to help tackle the climate emergency.
Led by the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE), the project also involved researchers from Edinburgh Napier University, Built Environment — Smarter Transformation (BE-ST), Ecosystems Technologies and dRMM Architects.
The findings challenge long-held assumptions that homegrown timber is unsuitable for modern construction. One of the project’s key developments was the creation of hybrid engineered timber products that combine hardwood and softwood within the same structural element.
Testing found that hybrid cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glued-laminated timber (glulam) products met existing strength and durability requirements using current manufacturing methods. The use of hardwood in key structural areas also reduced material requirements by around 10–15%, creating opportunities for lighter and more efficient building systems.
“This demonstrates how innovation, when supported by strong partnerships, can unlock new opportunities for sustainable construction and healthier, more resilient forests,” said Prof Robert Hairstans of NMITE and Edinburgh Napier University.
The research was also demonstrated through real-world projects, including the Building from Forests exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the installation of a hybrid hardwood-softwood glulam beam in NMITE’s new Skills Hub building in Hereford.
“For architects, this research opens up exciting new possibilities. Rather than designing around a limited palette of imported materials, we can begin to design with the characteristics and diversity of our local forests in mind,” said Finbar Charleson, research lead at dRMM.
Beyond construction, the project identified broader environmental and economic benefits from increased use of English timber, including lower embodied carbon, greater long-term carbon storage in buildings, more resilient and biodiverse forests and stronger rural economies through local manufacturing and processing.
“The Building from England’s Woodlands project demonstrates that the opportunity is not simply to use more timber, but to create higher-value manufacturing pathways that make better use of the resources available within our forests,” said Louise Rogers of BE-ST.
“By developing and testing hybrid engineered timber products, we have shown how English hardwoods can be integrated into modern manufacturing processes to create efficient, high-performance construction systems,” she added.
The findings also support the UK government’s Timber in Construction Roadmap and wider net-zero ambitions by providing evidence that homegrown timber could help decarbonise the built environment while diversifying productive forestry.
