Mark Thomson
Award-winning Brisbane eco-architect Mark Thomson and Responsible Wood Director has been appointed to the international judging panel at the World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam, the world’s largest global gathering of the architectural elite. Source: Timberbiz
The festival, dedicated to celebrating, sharing and inspiring outstanding architecture, is the only architecture event where keynote talks from the industry’s most influential figures sit alongside live judging presentations from more than 500 award finalists.
The festival is on from 28-30 November in the Netherlands’ capital and attracts more than 2000 of the world’s most senior architects and clients and includes an international product exhibition.
The event this year introduces for the first time a Best Use of Certified Timber Prize awarded for completed buildings and supported by the Program for Endorsement for Forest Certification.
Mark Thomson, a director of Responsible Wood, founded Eco Effective Solutions in 2010 and has undertaken architectural refurbishment projects and environmental consulting over a wide range of built project types.
He has a national reputation for championing sustainable design and development as a practising architect, commercial interior designer and environmental consultant.
He is the immediate past president of the Australian Green Development Forum, a faculty member of the Green Building Council of Australia and was formerly the corporate sustainability principal for the Schiavello Group of companies, Australia’s largest commercial furniture systems manufacturer and construction organisation.
In the certified timber contest, a special jury, including a PEFC representative, will identify entries that have used certified timber in an innovative, educational or artistic manner.
“Certified timber provides architects confidence that their specified timber has been sourced from sustainably managed forests and best practice supply-chain organisations,” PEFC CEO and secretary-general Ben Gunneberg said.
Short-listed architects will be contacted to confirm that the timber specified and used in the project originates from certified sources demonstrating leadership in sustainable design.
The winner will be announced at the festival dinner on 30 November.
