Having visited Arctic Finland many times in mid winter I have been increasingly impressed by the performance of the timber frame cabins which formed the bedroom accommodation of the hotel in which I stay. Although temperatures frequently fall to -30C and -50C is not unknown the rooms remain consistently comfortable night and day with a minimum of heat input. It is not surprising that when undertaking potentially one of the most demanding commissions of my career that I turned to timber frame as the basis of the design for a new house for my daughter, son in law and two small grandsons.

Paramount in the design brief was the need to build a home which is as environmentally friendly as possible with the goal of achieving Level 5 in the Code for Sustainable Homes. This could only be possible by designing a building with outstanding thermal characteristics and the twin wall system developed by Frame Wise provided the solution with a U Value of 0.1 for both walls and roof.

Working with Frame Wise, the details of the design have been developed and assessed against the code to ensure compliance. To date the predictor report is positive showing that we have every chance of hitting our target on completion.

Building work is now progressing well on site with the complete timber frame being erected by Frame Wise erectors over a three week period in February despite the freezing weather conditions when conventional masonry construction was impossible. Work is now continuing towards completion of the building with installation of insulation. This takes the form of a total of 300mm of semi rigid batts from Isover which fully fills the Twin Wall zone, which is manufactured from recycled glass in all the external walls and roof.

To date we have found our experience with the twin panel system to be entirely positive and look forward to watching the project progress to completion.

As writing we are just starting to fit the latest Vario Vapour Barrier which will give fantastic air tightness as well as U-values from the Twin Wall System from Frame Wise Ltd.