Kevin McCloud, the long‑time host of Grand Designs UK, will narrate a new documentary, Our Future: Built by Nature, which follows six award‑winning timber projects and their supply chains and will premiere at COP30 in Belém next month. The film, produced by Open Planet Studios and featuring Sir David Attenborough and the Brazilian Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, frames timber as the solution to the built environment’s carbon crisis.
The projects, chosen in London from more than 400 case studies across 38 countries, form the backbone of McCloud’s film. They span dense urban housing, retrofit conversions, disassemblable prototypes, large‑scale affordable housing, place‑based civic works and resilient public infrastructure:
- Appelweg, Amsterdam (Moos for client Ymere) — A four‑storey hybrid that stitches CLT into a concrete urban block, specifying roughly 1,350 m³ of timber to deliver density with lower upfront carbon.
- The Black and White Building, London (Waugh Thistleton) — A six‑storey post‑and‑beam retrofit that demonstrates how adaptive reuse and engineered timber cut embodied emissions while extending a building’s life.
- Circular Two‑Bedroom Home, Kampala (Easy Housing Concepts Uganda) — A 76 m² prefabricated, disassemblable house that translates circularity into an affordable, repairable prototype.
- Heartwood, Seattle (atelierjones) — An eight‑storey hybrid mass‑timber residential scheme showing that multi‑storey timber can meet scale, cost and embodied‑carbon targets for volume housing.
- La Maison de la réserve écologique, Épinay‑sur‑Seine (Archipel Zéro) — A two‑storey civic project pairing glulam with straw, compressed earth and recycled cellulose to reduce timber demand and strengthen local circular supply chains.
- Queensland Fire and Emergency Services North Coast Regional Headquarters & Maryborough Fire and Rescue, Maryborough (Baber Studio) — A two‑storey, 2,695 m² prefabricated CLT and glulam civic complex praised for rapid assembly, cyclone resilience and measurable carbon savings.
All six winners were judged under the Principles for Responsible Timber Construction, a global framework requiring full disclosure on materials, whole‑life carbon, certification and reuse strategies. Judges narrowed a 28‑project shortlist and were tested against five criteria: extending the life of existing buildings; accounting for whole life; ensuring sustainable forest management; maximising timber’s carbon‑storage potential; and promoting a timber building bioeconomy.
According to Paul King, Built by Nature’s CEO and chair of the judging panel, the Prize celebrates the organisations driving real change around the world, transforming construction for a regenerative future. “The ambition of this year’s winners and commendations speaks volumes about the progress being made in timber construction globally,” he said. “These are not just buildings; they are bold, real‑world demonstrations of what’s possible when design, material, and purpose align with the Principles for Responsible Timber Construction.”
Meanwhile, McCloud put the winners to the test of practice and policy: “These projects challenge outdated assumptions and show that timber is not only safe and sustainable, but also socially transformative. From fire stations to social housing, they prove that wood can be the material of resilience, beauty, and bold innovation.” Whilst Mae‑ling Lokko of Yale, a fellow judge, said each project shows how circular design and local ecosystems can come together to create buildings that are regenerative, inclusive, and deeply rooted in place. “They are blueprints for a future we urgently need.”
Our Future: Built by Nature will screen at the Museum of Art in São Paulo on 8 November before its COP30 premiere in Belém, where the Principles — already endorsed by more than 260 organisations — will be presented to ministers, negotiators and procurement leaders.
