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The client of the Black and White Building is The Office Group (TOG), a company that creates flexible working spaces across London. Having refurbished over 50 sites to deliver design-led workspaces, The Black & White Building is the first office TOG have built from scratch, their objective was to create a powerful statement of intent. The lowest carbon option, retrofit and expansion, wasn’t viable for the existing structure, so to achieve both target areas and carbon objectives every design decision needed to be fully interrogated, using the most carbon friendly building systems availlable. The resulting architecture pushes the boundaries of sustainable workplace design, with a concept derived from the materials and the aspiration to use the minimum whilst achieving the maximum.
Formed of an LVL frame with CLT wall and floor slabs, Black and White is central London's tallest fully engineered timber building. Located in a busy area of offices, it was important that the construction did not negatively affect its surroundings. Working with CLT, the project took around six months less to build and involved 80% fewer truck deliveries than an equivalent concrete building, reducing congestion and pollution on the streets. A site waste management plan was implemented to reduce construction waste. A pre-demolition audit of the existing structure was carried out with recyclable waste streams identified, and as a result much of the site waste was diverted from landfill. Offsite prefabrication further reduced site waste and enabled a quiet, dust free, dry construction site.
The Black and White Building takes a pioneering approach to sustainable design. Generating 37% less embodied carbon than a concrete building, The Black & White Building saves 1,083.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide, and 55% of the embodied carbon of the building is sequestered within the timber structure itself. Each component of the CLT-LVL frame was designed to be as efficient as possible, this optomisation results in 528 kgCO2e/m2 of embodied carbon. The building achieves a LETI A rating (A-C). The constituent elements of the building have been designed ultimately for disassembly, with 95% of the building's structure able to be reused or recycled when the building is finally decommissioned. To monitor embodied carbon, Life Cycle Assessments were incorporated throughout the design methdology.
The highly innovative Black & White Building is proof that carbon-minimal construction can be achieved through clever design. Setting a powerful new standard for sustainable office space, each component is designed to be as efficient as possible, resulting in an honest design without exces. A hybrid structure combines a beech LVL frame with CLT slabs to create vast open workspaces; with no structural internal partition walls and MEP carefully co-ordinated to minimise visual intrusion, the layout can be easily adapted as future demands change, and the building can ultimately be disassembled and reused. The building's design is expressed through its constituent parts, the beauty of the completed building stemming from the inherent qualities of each layer and each material without decoration. The biophilic benefits of the exposed timber are complemented throughout the interiors where tonal timbers and natural textures create a warm and engaging environment that explore ways of connecting people to each other, and to nature. A total volume of 1,330m3 of timber has been used to make the innovative core structure that supports the building. Inside, crisp cross-laminated timber slabs are paired with a beech laminated veneer lumber frame while externally tulipwood can be found on the face of the building. The aesthetic qualities of the building are derived from an integrity to material, inspiring a connection to the natural world in the context of the busy urban environment.
After meeting Waugh at a panel talk about sustainability, TOG co-founder Charlie Green asked him to instead create a new building that would be suitable for the site. "We took our planning consented scheme, and we used the envelope and the massing of that to ask Andrew to create something within that form that's timber," Green said. "He did more than that, he redesigned it so we had a more efficient core position to create a better flow of space, and came up with this timber scheme."
Waugh Thistleton Architects is a research based architectural practice producing thoughtful and sustainable projects globally. As world leaders in engineered timber and sustainable buildings, the quality of our buildings and our commitment to timber construction has earned us an international reputation in environmentally sustainable architecture and design. The starting point for every project is the nature of the site - including its cultural, social, and historical context, and the needs of the building’s users. From this point we determine construction materials and methods, striving at every point to produce innovative and imaginative sustainable design solutions that harness leading technologies. Working in close collaboration with our clients, consultants, contractors and key stakeholders on each project, the architecture we produce is responsive, original, and intelligent. In 2023, we were awarded Architect Practice of the Year by the Architects Journal.
