Timber Square.

Honouring SE1’s industrial heritage while standing out as the UK’s largest commercial development to use cross-laminated timber, Timber Square comprises of two sizeable office buildings (The Ink Building and The Print Building) with office terraces complemented by landscaped public areas. The challenge was to think about design from a fresh perspective with our sustainability, MEP and other engineering specialisms working together to tackle the complex tapestry of solutions needed.

Landsec, developer of the Southwark site, is targeting a stratum of sustainability commitments. These include retaining a quarter of the existing Print Building (the basement and structural frame) to mix elements of the old with the new, using natural and recycled materials, and capitalising on the opportunities for minimising embodied carbon, as well as adopting NABERS UK Design for Performance principles to minimise energy use in operation and target.
With carbon considered at every stage, the project embraced cross-laminated timber (CLT), as carbon remains sequestered in the wood. Our Sustainability team focused on gaining the best outcome for embodied carbon and undertook whole life carbon assessments, while our Fire Engineering and Acoustics teams collaborated on solutions for implementing CLT, including a full-scale mock-up fire test in France to obtain valuable data and demonstrate how CLT responds under fire conditions.

The way we approached carbon on this project was fundamentally different from how it has been done in the past. Our Sustainability, Performance and MEP teams collaborated with Landsec to enhance outcomes for building energy efficiency using air source heat pumps powered by 100% renewable energy. This approach led to Timber Square being the first project in the UK to be awarded a NABERS UK 5 Star Design Review Target Rating. Our Performance team also provided touch-line support to the MEP team to ensure the design incorporated NABERS compliant metering to allow the consumed energy to be measured in operation. With CLT still novel in the UK despite being widely used in other countries, we extensively modelled and tested the CLT floor to support Landsec in obtaining statutory approvals from Building Control, London Fire Brigade and their insurance providers. Likewise, our Acoustics team developed innovative solutions that will pave the way for Landsec to be more confident in using CLT for future projects by ensuring the floor structure was compliant with the BCO specification to minimise noise and vibration transfer between floors.

We prioritised human-centric, health-focused design in this project, promoting occupational comfort and physical and mental wellbeing. Working in the office should make you feel good, evidenced by this project targeting the highest WELL rating of Core Platinum, a marker of a building’s positive impact on its occupant’s health and wellbeing. Terraces and roof gardens on most of the Ink Building floors, and a new public realm connects it to the Print Building, connecting occupants with nature and opening the site up into its local context.