Since 1975, professionals across the New Zealand construction sector have been celebrating timber design and its usage and on November 2nd 2023, the Timber Design Awards can once again be celebrated in Auckland.

After a three year hiatus in the Awards themselves, Timber Unlimited is thrilled to be hosting this event, with a total of 18 different companies sponsoring 12 separate categories, the People’s Choice Award and the gala evening.

“It’s no mistake we call ourselves Timber Unlimited,” says Dr Robert Finch, Director of Timber Unlimited. “The possibilities for timber aren’t limited to traditional uses any more. We all know timber can be aesthetically beautiful as well as being an impressive building material, but this time we’re also celebrating just how sustainable a sector this is. We exist to build belief in the possibilities of timber. To prove that timber is the smart choice for now and in the future, and assist the industry in exploring the features and benefits of timber, and how to use it to create better built environments. What better way to help us do this than the Timber Design Awards? The rapidly increasing use of timber in so many innovative and exciting ways has the added benefit of sequestering CO 2 , helping us all transition to a low-emissions economy.”

Awards Manager Debbie Fergie agrees. “Now more than ever, it’s important we recognise and celebrate the engineers, architects, architectural designers and builders who push boundaries and embrace change by championing nature’s greatest building material, sourced from the country’s renewable, natural, resource-based forests,” she says. “We’re helping the New Zealand design industry understand the many ways timber can inspire their visions and solve their construction challenges.”

Nearly 50 years ago, timber began to emerge from its traditional market position of two- or maybe three-storey buildings using slabs, planks and nails. Architects and engineers became excited by the possibilities offered by glue-laminated timber members to span wide areas without additional supports.

Today, the 2023 Timber Design Awards present categories for structures that use timber in ways that again push the boundaries of the possible, challenging steel and concrete as core construction materials or working with them in new and exciting ways.

From residential and commercial architectural excellence, to innovative uses of engineered wood, to new ways to use specialty timbers – wood is now firmly established as a favourite of forward thinking architects and engineers.

Click here to read the full press release and click here to view the award finalists.