Built by Nature’s Frontrunner of the Year

At dRMM, we’re excited by a challenge. As a studio of designers, researchers and makers we’re driven by the mission to help construction move beyond sustainable practice towards regenerative buildings and cities. Making structures which sequester carbon, support biodiversity and empower communities is difficult and sometimes feels like a complex struggle.

This kind of work doesn’t happen in isolation. Architects often feel the need to control every part of a project, but no single person or discipline has all the answers. Collaboration is essential and networks work. Built by Nature brings together people from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Spain, creating spaces for open discussion, experimentation, and knowledge sharing. Progress is made up of many small interventions, working sometimes in harmony, sometimes in tension, producing an eclectic output of ideas and solutions.

My grandfather was a forester in Germany, and he taught me to care for trees for future generations – felling, planking, drying, and turning timber into tools, furniture, and buildings. Yet my formal architecture education gave me little connection to nature or making. Working with Alex de Rijke at dRMM changed that – he taught me to see architecture as a tool to transform communities, with timber as our material of choice. That approach reshaped how I see design, craft, and the role of the architect.

Some of our projects show what this approach can achieve. Kingsdale School, with its all-timber auditorium, remains a shining example. Its geodesic structure uses round timber in its natural form, combining traditional material with digital design. At WorkStack the stacked light-industrial units demonstrate how timber can be used practically in a new sector. And our Timber Tower concept explores geometry, material, and buildability, showing how innovation and craft can come together in regenerative design. Each project teaches us something new about timber, nature, and building better cities.

Of course, all timber construction starts in the forest. We believe that regenerative communities and their buildings depend on biodiverse woodlands with a wide variety of tree species. Shortly, we’ll be sharing a research project undertaken with Napier University and BE-ST in Scotland, developed for the Forestry Commission. This work identifies nine broadleaf species in England’s woodlands, provides structural data for timber varieties previously unsuitable for construction, and explores new engineered timber products and supply chains.

Earlier this year, we completed another research project – Measuring Mass Timber –  which developed a methodology to assess timber buildings’ carbon footprints and impact on quality of life. Kat Scott and Finbar Charleson led on this way of linking design choices to measurable environmental and social outcomes. Funded by Built by Nature and in collaboration with Napier University and the Quality of Life Foundation, the study looked at five buildings and started to create benchmarks for ‘good’ timber architecture.

Balancing design excellence and environmental responsibility within a regenerative constructive industry is a global challenge. We need our collaborative networks to meet this challenge.