Three Wins at the RIBA London Awards 2024

The Arbour is a private mews development within Walthamstow Village. 

The project redeveloped the existing site, which housed small industrial units, into nine residential dwellings. The dwellings sit alongside a commercial and wellbeing building so residents can ‘live, work and play’ within the space.

The scheme is based on a Carbon and Energy Positive, Zero Waste framework which aims to make this development one of the most sustainable commercial scale developments constructed globally. 

Our challenge was to ensure the structure had a low embodied carbon. We made the primary structure as efficient as possible by:

• Reusing brickwork
  
• A timber superstructure
• Rammed earth walls to restrict the use of concrete.

This led to a design with an embodied carbon intensity of just 36% of the RIBA benchmark.

The Department Store Studios is a new four-storey contemporary workspace building in Brixton, London.

Providing 13,000 sq ft of workspace and 4,500 sq ft of retail, it is a platform for growing businesses with flexible workspaces. From individual desks to private studios, the project provides a host of serviced social and meeting areas. It is also home to a neighbourhood bar, restaurant, and screening room.

The crafted red brick building takes inspiration from the robust Edwardian aesthetic of its sister development, The Department Store, with patterned brickwork and contemporary faceted bay windows. A set-back fourth floor responds to the surrounding residential streets and creates generous planted external terraces. Internally, designs are centred on sustainability and the honesty of raw materials, with an exposed timber superstructure consisting of CLT floors supported on glulam beams and columns.

The Parcels Building – known as such because it sits atop a former ‘Mail Rail’ station – occupies the corner of Oxford and Duke Streets in London’s West End, across from the world-famous Selfridges department store.

As part of an effort to uplift the character of the surrounding area, the Parcels Building refurbishment includes installing a new façade to the 1950s building and adding a storey to the part-retail, part-office scheme.

As refined and elegant as it is, the heavy new stone façade required structural innovation to support its projection from the existing frame. To achieve this, we developed a bespoke bracketry system which applied load to the columns and beams in a way that was sympathetic to the existing structural frame, reducing the need for strengthening works. Retaining the structure saved 513T CO₂e.

The rooftop extensions are constructed of steel and cross-laminated timber (CLT) to keep the structure lightweight and to introduce the sustainability benefits of timber. Both the new stone façade and CLT extension were justified without strengthening works to columns or foundations. We worked closely with Grafton Architects on detailing the timber to create a flush soffit between the timber slabs and supporting steel beams.

As well as now being a suitable companion to its esteemed neighbour, the beautiful new Parcels Building represents a feat of sustainable structural refurbishment that has breathed new life into an outdated 1950s building.