James Jones & Sons completes new visitor building at flagship Lockerbie site

The Lockerbie site is the showcase sawmill within the James Jones Group. It is the largest single-site sawmill complex in the UK and the most technically advanced. As such, pre-pandemic, Lockerbie received a high number of visitors – including small groups of customer visits, customer training courses, academic institutions, and industry events.

The idea for the building recognised the need to provide increased office accommodation, better visitor facilities, and the opportunity to host on-site training courses and industry meetings, which previously had to be conducted offsite.

The brief for the building was part functional and part aspirational. At a functional level, there was a requirement to provide office accommodation for up to 10 staff, a meeting room capable of holding up to 30 people theatre style, with the flexibility to hold classroom sessions and industry meetings and, in addition, a smaller meeting room, kitchen facilities and a reception area for visitors.

The completed building’s structure acts as a demonstration project, almost entirely erected from James Jones & Sons own products with an approach to minimising the use of steel and maximising timber. Loadbearing glulam beams were used throughout the building, while an unprocessed tree trunk provides loadbearing support to the backbone of the building; a nod to the timber processing cycle.

Taking all the timber elements into account, the building fabric has almost 40 CO2TE within it. The building’s environmental agenda goes beyond the extensive use of timber: an air source heat pump provides a renewable source of heating and summer cooling to the building. The various vents and ducts for this system, the bathrooms, and the kitchen are carefully expressed in the timber cladding on the South Elevation. Electric car charging further demonstrates the company’s commitment to its inherently green credentials.

Speaking about the building, Rob MacKenna, general manager at James Jones Lockerbie site said “We are really pleased with the new building.  The striking design and innovative use of solid and engineered timber products are a great example of how timber can be used to deliver high-quality office and meeting areas.  The main meeting room has been positioned to achieve a stunning view across the Stevens Croft site, enabling visitors to view part of our operations from the comfort of this space. We look forward to a time when we can welcome back groups of visitors and host them in this fantastic new facility”.

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