The redevelopment of a 1930's former furniture warehouse in Hackney. Using CLT panels and glulam beams, the existing four-storey building has been extended to include a new building over the yard as well as a new office space on the top floor of the main building.  

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Conceived as a workshop and studio space, the new floor level has been designed to promote collaboration featuring a flexible, column free space with four rows of 10m long, north-light, windows  maximizing indirect light. To the side of the existing building, a lightweight CLT extension complementing the new sawtooth roof structure sits over the original yard, creating light-filled space for meetings, alongside a new stair and lift core and a new covered entrance to the building. 

The CLT has been left exposed throughout the building, mimicking the exposed masonry finishes of the original building. With exposed connections and articulation of joints, when seen collectively this forms a pleasing variation of material intersections between the old and the new, allowing the spaces to have their own character whilst retaining a familiarity throughout. The end result being a considered and didactic expression of the building’s construction; expressed panel joints, exposed lamellas and undisguised connections all demonstrating the buildings sequencing.

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The total embodied carbon for the structure at Chart Street is 171kgC02e/m2, outperforming RIBA, LETI and IStructE targets. This has been achieved in part by retaining 86% of the existing structure, reducing demolition and material waste while adding another 60+ years of design life. For operational energy, the building is predicted to achieve a value of 89.6 kwh/m2/year which sits well within the RIBA 2025 target of 110 kwh/m2/year.