Timber Studio aims to address 3 themes of enquiry: contemporary material histories with a focus on the timber industry in Scotland; the care for, and reuse of, existing urban fabric; and the creation of community buildings that engage with issues of material waste, social justice, and food insecurity.

Initially through research and drawings, students investigate material selection as a holistic process that considers the lifecycle of timber from the planted forest, its harvest, to the milling of components that arrive on site. This knowledge is then transplanted to a ruinous back land site in Leith. Through making a series of models, and drawings students consider how we can care for neglected urban fabric and potentially prop, repair and re-inhabit it using timber structures.

Alongside these strategies of reuse, students engage with two local charities as clients, writing a brief for buildings that foster communal gathering and the reuse of surplus food and materials. The resultant projects aim to propose a framework for caring for the environment that extends beyond the bounds of the buildings and their courtyard and into the wider community