ARCHITECTURE OF SUFFICIENCY

“When I heard that TOG were thinking about a new sustainable office building, it’s like I was standing in the queue for a nightclub and they put my favourite song on,” says Andrew Waugh, Waugh Thistleton Architects. “I admire the fact they had the commitment and the courage to do this in the first place. They flew in the face of naysayers, and they took the lead. It was very bold of them.”

Mass timber developments

Opening in January 2023, the Black & White Building has become the latest in a series of landmark structures showcasing the best in timber technology and sustainable architecture.

Design-led workspace specialist The Office Group (TOG) has come together with Waugh Thistleton Architects to explore a new approach to workplace design. In The Black & White Building, they have explored an ‘architecture of sufficiency’– where every element serves a purpose, nothing is superfluous, and all materials and processes are as efficient and sustainable as possible.

The new seven-storey mass timber building in the heart of Shoreditch sets out to demonstrate that timber is not just a viable alternative to the conventional concrete and steel used to build offices, when it comes to performance and sustainability, it is the preferable option. Standing 17.8m above the Shoreditch streetscape, it can serve as a model for the office architecture of the future.

The previous building on the site – a 11,000sq ft structure painted black and white – was incapable of meeting the area’s growing workspace demand but also unviable for extension, so TOG co-founders and co-CEOs Olly Olsen and Charlie Green were determined to create the most sustainable building that they possibly could. Their research led them to Waugh Thistleton Architects – a firm responsible for pioneering timber designs for over a decade, including landmark residential blocks such as Dalston Works and Murray Grove, as well as Vitsoe’s Leamington Spa HQ.

TOG and Waugh Thistleton set out to create a building that minimised carbon in both its construction and, once complete, its operations. The architects proposed a structure built from the ground up using cross laminated timber (CLT) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL). “The principal message of The Black & White Building is sustainability, says Andrew. “This is a mainstream, grade-A central London office building, built entirely from timber. It clearly demonstrates that mass timber is a viable replacement for concrete and steel in the mainstream office market, saving thousands of tonnes of CO2. We’re trying to change the way we build, to transform the industry.”

The CLT frame was chosen for its perfect balance of sustainability, lightness and strength. Glulam is used for the curtain walling, and the columns and beams are made out of beech LVL.

The structure comprises a combination of timbers from 227 beech and 1,547 pine and spruce trees harvested from PEFC-certified forests in Austria and Germany. For a sustainable forest to regenerate the quantity of wood used in the construction of The Black & White Building would take approximately 137 minutes – meaning that it’s possible to grow enough timber to construct a sixstorey, seven-floor building in less time than it takes to bake a loaf of bread.

CLT is significantly lighter and easier to transport than conventional building materials such as concrete and steel, which means that fewer deliveries are required to bring the necessary quantities to the construction site. This not only represents a carbon-reduction in terms of logistics, it also makes building in dense urban areas a more efficient process that is less disruptive for neighbours and other road users.

Because the timber components are prefabricated, and precisionengineered to be slotted together, the ‘screwed not glued’ building not only requires a smaller workforce to construct, it also has a part to play in the circular economy. At the end of its life, the building can be easily disassembled rather than demolished, and the materials can be recovered and reused. Overall, The Black & White Building creates 37% less embodied carbon than a comparable concrete structure, and serves as a long-term carbon store for 1,014.7 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (55% of the building’s total) sequestered in the timber structure. The team expects to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating once the building is complete.

“The Black & White Building represents a major step forward for us,” says Charlie Green, co-founder, TOG. “And – I hope – the wider industry too. It’s a statement of who we are and how we will approach sustainability – we don’t need to build the traditional way with concrete and steel anymore. We always retrofit when we can, and when we build new buildings in future, TOG is committed to constructing them from timber and other sustainable materials.”

Sustainable inside and out

The Black & White Building is powered by 100% renewable energy sources – including 80 solar panels on the rooftop. No element of The Black & White Building is purely decorative –everything has a purpose. Notably, the exterior is clad in timber louvres that run from street level to the roof. These provide natural shade, reducing solar gain on the façade and boosting the natural light reaching the interior. The louvres change in depth as they ascend the building in order to optimise energy efficiency.

The louvres are crafted from thermally modified tulipwood, recommended and supplied by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC). This timber is highly affordable, lightweight, readily replenished, and has minimal environmental impact.

Internally, The Black & White Building has been consciously designed to encourage interaction and collaboration, enabling people to connect through a variety of spaces in multiple ways. Lounges of various sizes and layouts are found throughout, as well as plentiful break-out areas and pockets of outdoor space, culminating in a decked rooftop terrace offering cityscape views, ideal for sunny days. To maximise natural light in the building throughout the day, a lightwell runs the full height of the building from the rooftop terrace down to a courtyard containing a maple tree on the lower ground floor. The building is home to 28 offices of various sizes, six meeting rooms, focus booths and break-out areas, 94 bike storage spaces and showers.

The entire building is, as Waugh Thistleton has described it, ‘visibly sustainable’. The sensory impact of the space is significant. “I love that kind of ‘whoosh’ sensation you get when you first come in,” adds Andrew.

“The beauty, excitement and aroma. When you walk through the front door and discover the contemporarycathedral quality to the space, you just feel that there’s a sense of overwhelming optimism about the building.”

A benchmark for building sustainably

For both TOG and Waugh Thistleton Architects, The Black & White Building represents a proof of concept that they hope will inspire and encourage the wider architectural community to adopt carbon-minimal construction methods and engineered timber materials. In the short term, the building will provide a Shoreditch home for creative businesses determined to make a credible sustainability statement. In the long term, it is a call to kickstart a new era of architecture, founded on lowcarbon construction, circular thinking, and natural materials.

www.theofficegroup.com/uk/

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