Bartlett Student Wins AJ Sustainability Award

Congratulations to Tengku Sharil Bin Tengku Abdul Kadir (UG5, Architecture BSc), who was selected for the AJ Student Prize 2020: Sustainability Award for his project 'One Tree Manual: Towards a Better Timber Architecture.' 

The project proposes a paradigm shift in attitudes towards the use of timber and trees in architecture as he advocates that growing demand for timber should not be met by increased logging, but through maximising the potential of every tree harnessed for construction. 

In his project, Sharil notes that Sweden’s standing timber volume is set to increase by over 500 million m3 over the next ten years and this large and growing resource is currently worth one-fifth of Sweden’s GDP. However, 81.6% of a tree is typically wasted in the conversion of tree to timber construction.

He proposes a timber institute in suburban Stockholm as an immersive and experiential environment to impart knowledge about timber construction.

His ‘whole tree – nothing goes to waste’ approach is a unique and smart critique on current inefficiencies in logging and explores timber technology not only as a performance-oriented design parameter, but as a holistic and sustainable process, charged with aesthetic potential, craft and culture.”  

-  Julia Backhaus and Ben Hayes, UG5 leaders

More information

• AJ Student Prizewinners 2020
• Sharil’s work at The Bartlett Summer Show
• Architecture BSc

Images: 'One Tree Manual: Towards a Better Timber Architecture,' by Sharil Bin Tengku Abdul Kadir.