Russwood is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of timber cladding and flooring, operating from their Newtonmore headquarters in Highland Scotland. The business is expanding and managing director John Russell wanted to improve the efficiency of the operation by building a new head office for the management, sales, marketing and administrative staff.

John was looking for a building that, as well as providing the much-needed space was environmentally efficient and where possible use locally sourced materials. He also wanted to be able to use the building to show off Russwood products by introducing a variety of external cladding, decking and internal flooring.

HRI Architects were engaged to come up with the initial design concepts and consulting engineers David Narro Associates looked after the structural side of the project. An unusual requirement of the structure was that because of ground conditions on the site, which is next to the Inverness to Perth railway line, the building needed to sit completely above ground level rather than having conventional foundations.

The architects came up with a design that made extensive use of JJI-Joists in both the floor and roof structure sitting within a Glulam frame, also supplied by James Jones. The unusual footprint of the building, together with the gull-wing roof, required considerable input from David Narro and also the design team at James Jones Timber Systems Division in Forres, who were able to provide detailed design support throughout the programme.

The building incorporates 1,600 linear metres of JJI-Joist at 300A+ and 300C depth.

Speaking about the project John Russell commented:

“We were looking for a building that was highly functional, energy efficient and allowed us to make a statement about the type of business we are and showcase both our products and Scottish design and construction talent. We have been able to achieve all that and more with a building we are proud to call home.”

Architect

Mark Williams HRI

Contractor:

CR Construction

Engineered Wood Supplier:

James Jones & Sons Ltd

Consulting Engineer

Mark Hepburn, David Narro Associates

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