TRA Roofscape Design Awards

A new initiative to celebrate the technical skills of trussed rafter designers in the UK and Ireland.

Challenge
Strategy
Results

New awards attract more than 30 entries in first year

Two of the three winners in year one were female designers

The Trussed Rafter Association (TRA) represents the trussed rafter industry in the UK and Ireland. Its members include the principal manufacturers of timber trussed rafters, metal web joists, suppliers, and professionals involved in roof truss and engineered wood floor joist design and manufacture. The TRA provides advice and guidance on technical issues, training and health and safety.

Challenge

Few homebuyers, or their builders, would give much thought to the person who designed their roof. Yet trussed rafter designers possess significant technical and problem-solving skills that ensure safe, strong and beautiful buildings of all types. Many designs are complex and clever, bespoke engineering solutions that reduce the need for steel and boost the use of sustainable timber in construction.

The TRA was looking for a way to shine a spotlight on these skills and to boost members' ability to recruit and retain designers in timber engineering. LMC proposed the Roofscape Design Awards scheme as a way to celebrate the highly technical skills required in the design of trussed rafter roofs, joists and panels in newbuild, conversions and refurbishment projects.

Strategy

LMC worked with the TRA's management committee to launch the Roofscape Design Awards at the TRA's AGM and conference in 2022.

We helped design the awards criteria and set up an online entry system. We promoted the awards via PR, social media, e-newsletters, website content and even personal phone calls to each TRA member company. We then sourced independent judges with the necessary technical skills, and the trophies. The winners were announced at the TRA's AGM dinner in May 2023, and every shortlisted entry gave us an opportunity for further technical project case studies and profile articles in the media.

With two out of the three winning designers that year being female, this provided a particularly strong story about the career opportunities for women in timber engineering, and has given us female role models to use in the TRA's wider careers campaigns.