WELSH BUILDING SYSTEM TO BE SHOWCASED IN WASHINGTON DC
An award-winning modular building system for affordable housing that uses sustainable Welsh wood will be in the international spotlight at a major cultural festival in Washington DC this summer.
Coed Cymru will be showcasing Ty Unnos (house built in one night) at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, from June 24 to July 5.
A specially designed version of Ty Unnos will be shipped across to the United States and assembled for the festival, which takes place on the National Mall, scene of President Obama's inauguration.
Coed Cymru, based in Tregynon, near Newtown, will be joining around 100 Welsh performers and craftspeople who will be showcasing Wales for 10 days. The capital of the United States will take on a distinctly Welsh flavour as Wales is the featured nation at the festival, which is expected to attract more than one million visitors.
Ty Unnos is a project that has been developed by Coed Cymru over the past two years in partnership with The Welsh School of Architecture and Bangor University. Funded by the Countryside Council for Wales, Wood Knowledge Wales, a Wales Forest Business Partnership initiative, Environment Agency and Powys County Council, the project's mission is to develop a system of high performance affordable housing based on the properties of home-grown timber.
The building system comprises a series of portal frames made from Welsh spruce beams. Secondary ladder beams span between these frames to form floor and ceiling joists and wall studs before pre-insulated infill panels with voids for windows and doors are attached.
Ty Unnos was chosen for the Wales Smithsonian Cymru activity for its focus on sustainability and for bringing together ancient Welsh building traditions with new technology.
The Ty Unnos system, which is being manufactured by Oswestry company Elements Europe, has won five major awards for innovation in the last five months and is attracting international interest.
A single storey Ty Unnos starter home attracted great interest when exhibited by Elements Europe at the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff last August. The Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University has now designed a special version of Ty Unnos for the festival to comply with United States exhibition regulations and to fit into standard shipping containers,
The new version has been constructed from components provided by Kenton Jones, Welshpool at Elements Europe's warehouse before being dismantled for shipping in May to Washington DC. It includes a part-finished house on a large deck with an open frame system alongside to illustrate the building process.
The project has required a great team effort involving Elements Europe, Coed Cymru, Kenton Jones, Pontrilas Sawmills, BSW Sawmills, Heartwood of Caersws, Pembrokeshire and Wentwood Timber Stores, Corus, NEO Fabrication and Burroughs, Cardiff, who have provided engineering support.
"This is a unique opportunity to showcase Ty Unnos because the Smithsonian Folklife Festival features only one country each year, which means that Wales' turn will not come around again in our lifetime," said Coed Cymru director David Jenkins. "We are very proud to be taking part in the festival, which will raise the profile of Ty Unnos and of Wales."
The Wales area at the festival, which will be of the size of four football pitches, will offer visitors a flavour of the cultural life of Wales through a range of themed area and on stages, where visitors will hear a wide range of Welsh music and poetry. The site will also reflect the Welsh landscape.
Established back in 1985 as a public sector partnership, Coed Cymru has instigated more than 6,000 woodland projects in Wales, half of which are farm woodlands. The company, which works with around 100 Welsh manufacturers, began product development work on utilising Welsh hardwoods in 1990 and has successfully developed outdoor furniture, laminated flooring, windows, doors, cladding and wood chips for fuel.
For more information please contact David Jenkins at Coed Cymru, 01686 650777 or Duncan Foulkes, public relations consultant, on 01686 650818.
Coed Cymru, The Old Sawmill,
Tregynon, Newtown,
Powys SY16 3PL
Tel 01686 650 777
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