The Natural History Museum’s Urban Nature Project has been crowned the UK’s best new timber project, with Feilden Fowles and J&L Gibbons’ designed scheme taking home the Gold Prize at the 2025 Wood Awards, which was once again staged at Carpenters’ Hall, London.
In total, five acres of underused gardens were reimagined as a living journey through geological time. At the centre of this transformation stand two timber‑and‑stone buildings — the Garden Kitchen café and the Nature Activity Centre — designed to sit quietly within the museum’s grounds while showcasing sustainable, low‑carbon construction.
The café combines a Douglas fir glulam frame with a masonry façade, topped by a stepped roof with a glazed lantern and natural ventilation panels. The education pavilion adopts a barn‑like form, its asymmetrically pitched roof clad in Western Red Cedar shingles that project outward to provide shelter and harvest rainwater. Together, the buildings support youth learning and scientific research while demonstrating efficient timber structures expressed with clarity and restraint.
Jim Greaves, principal of Hopkins Architects and lead Buildings judge, said the project had “transformed the approach to the Natural History Museum, creating a journey through geological time with the creation of a series of outdoor living galleries.” He described the timber buildings as calm additions to the landscape that complement Alfred Waterhouse’s Victorian masterpiece. The scheme, he added, exemplifies environmental sensitivity and timber detailing, with structures that are “light and elegant…using simple, economic joinery to create legible, highly refined buildings that are at one with their setting.”
The judging panel visited all 20 shortlisted buildings before awarding the Gold Prize. David Hopkins, chief executive of Timber Development UK, said the UK’s long tradition of timber construction was powerfully reflected in this year’s winner, bringing sustainable forestry, healthy woodlands and exceptional craftsmanship into the heart of the nation’s heritage in an outstanding public and educational setting.
Other winners highlighted timber’s versatility, from social housing at Chowdhury Walk to experimental structures like The Armadillo. Pine Heath, The Cowshed, New Wave House and Paradise were also recognised across building, sustainability and structural categories. Furniture and object winners included A Forest Datum and the Levity Collection.
The awards coincided with wider celebrations of timber and sustainability, including the premiere of Forested Future, a new documentary directed by Petr Krejčí and produced by AHEC Europe. Screened at festivals in Barcelona and Ji.hlava, the film explores how our relationship with trees could hold the key to a more sustainable future.
Established in 1971, the Wood Awards remain the UK’s premier competition for excellence in architecture and product design in wood. Backed by The Carpenters’ Company, the American Hardwood Export Council and Timber Development UK, the awards continue to champion timber as a cornerstone of sustainable design.
