Hayes presents 2015 Third Level Student Wood Awards

Tom Hayes, TD, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with responsibility for forestry last night presented the 2015 Third Level Student Wood Awards in the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin.

The Minister stressed the importance of innovation in the forest sector  and emphasizing the value of the Awards, Minister Hayes said, “the Student Wood Awards is much more than a competition rewarding design and creativity on the part of our third level students. The Awards are also a showcase for Irish timber and Irish forestry”.

The Minister of State outlined the investment by the State in the development of forestry over the last number of decades and, referring to the rollout of the new Forestry Programme 2014-2020, which involves a total investment of €482 million over its lifetime to the continued development of forestry, commenting “While the State continues to play its part in the development of forestry and landowners commit their land to the planting of new forest, it is also important to develop the uses of that timber to ensure continuity of demand for the timber - hence the importance of innovation.”.

The Third Level Student Wood Awards is an annual competition organised by the Wood Marketing Federation which is open to third level students of architecture, engineering, design and innovation in Ireland who incorporate wood as an inherent element in their projects.  Coillte is the main sponsor with additional funding provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine via COFORD and the Society of Irish Foresters.  This year’s Awards were divided into five categories – timber and engineering in construction; architecture; design; innovation, and craft/fabrication.

The list of categories and winners are as follows;

Category	Winner	College	Title
Architecture	Liam Farrelly	UCD	Lifecycle: A Timber Framework
Engineering	Graham Watson	Queens University Belfast	Timber Composite Floor Cassettes
Design	Stuart Hayes	DIT	Incognito - An Occasional Table
Innovation	Sean Burns	Galway-Mayo IT Letterfrack College	Furniture Design & Manufacturing
Craft/Fabrication	Barry Flanagan	Bray Institute of Further Education	Scaffold Furniture

Minister of State Hayes concluded his speech by expressing his hope “that this new Programme of measures will encourage landowners to consider forestry as a viable and profitable land use option. Competitions such as the Student Wood Awards showcase new and innovative possibilities for the timber that today’s forests will produce.”

 

Date Released: 03 July 2015