Client: The Thousand Year TrustArchitect: Unknown WorksLocation: Cornwall, UK
Date: 2026-10-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTCTags: Newbuild, Education, Research, Timber, Grading
Atlantic Temperate Rainforest Research Station
Format are working with Unknown Works and The Thousand Year Trust to develop the world’s first Atlantic Temperate Rainforest Research Station in Cornwall, UK.
The Research Station facilitates scientific research conducted by thought leaders and researchers in collaboration with Universities. To do this the project includes fieldwork lodging for scientists, a collaboration hub, and a laboratory for conducting research with a climate controlled sample and equipment storage. In the depths of a rainforest valley on Bodmin Moor, the new research station will facilitate ground-breaking thinking and collaboration with tangible impact in Cornwall and across other temperate biomes.
Through collaboration with the Woodland Trust the project makes use of timber being felled as part of their own rainforest restoration projects where plantation Douglas Fir and Beech are being removed. These two primary materials are being taken through the full supply chain by the project, from standing trees to fabricated elements. As such the engineering design has had to respond to necessities such as drying times and between-species differential movements.
The aspiration to use douglas fir in the round and UK-grown beech has required a series of in-depth studies into material properties and routes to justify the strength of timber material where typical grading rules cannot be deployed.
This project is ongoing with the aim for foundations to be installed during winter 2026-2027.
Renders are by Unknown Works