Architect Andrew Waugh Discusses the World’s Tallest Mixed-use Wood Building

When architect Andrew Waugh proposed to build a nine-story structure in London’s Hackney borough almost entirely of wood, his reasons were environmental. Between the emissions avoided by not using steel or concrete and the fact that wood keeps greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere by storing the carbon absorbed by growing trees, he estimated that the savings would be equivalent to about 300 tonnes of carbon—which is the amount the building is projected to emit over 21 years of operation.

However, it was the building’s other benefits that ultimately swayed the owners, including a building timeframe of 49 weeks instead of the 72 required to erect a similar concrete structure and significant cost savings.

The building is comprised of 29, one-to-four bedroom apartments, 10 of which are social housing units. It’s made from an Austrian system of cross-laminated solid wood panels that form a cellular structure of load bearing walls, including stairways and elevator cores, with timber floor slabs. Panels are prefabricated in lengths of about 40 feet x 12 feet with cut-outs for windows and doors made in the factory.

“When we first got the project, we wanted to do all the floors and walls in timber, but it was assumed that the elevator core and stair core would be in concrete,” said Waugh. “But as we progressed with the engineer it became simpler and more straightforward if we also did the cores in timber. This began to form the structural approach to the building, which was like a honeycomb, so that the whole building is working. All the walls, floors and cores are load bearing. “

According to Waugh, one of the most interesting things about the project was how simple it was to build with wood. When the boilers arrived, for example, the design team discovered a new requirement that meant cutting an extra two inches into the external wall. “You can imagine doing that with a pre-cut concrete system or a masonry system. That would have been a nightmare, whereas we were able to do it with a skill saw.”

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