Workstack

The architectural quality and the massing of the proposal make it a credible model for light industrial uses next to residential developments, potentially in dense urban conditions.

Greenwich Enterprise Board (GEB) develop and let progressive workspaces in Greenwich. As a not-for-profit organisation, they offer places for small businesses to grow, encouraging diversity within the borough’s urban centre and reversing the loss of workshops to the periphery. GEB invited us to design a building to house a mixture of light industrial, creative and office uses on a compact site of 1,426m2. It was important that the building play to its visibility but also respond to its context, situated on an arterial route on the border of an established industrial zone and residential area.

The building is organised in a simple and functional manner, with three units per floor, forming three structural bays. These are stacked over five floors, minimising the footprint of the building. Two lifts provide the primary access to the upper floors for goods and personnel whilst an external stair is located to the outside of the eastern façade.

Due to its inherent structural properties, each unit is able to progressively cantilever 1.7m at each floor. This creates a corbelled effect to the west façade, providing shading and limiting solar gain to the lower units. The scheme will provide a base for 14 businesses and offer employment for around 60 people, but it is intended that future developments could accommodate more.

We collaborated closely with Arup to develop the innovative structural design required to achieve the impressive and striking cantilevered form. We also collaborated with ME Design Consultancy to achieve the client’s requirements for a minimal servicing strategy so the budget could be focused on areas that were deemed more effective. A BREEAM rating of Very Good has been targeted. Regular discussions with the planning department of Royal Borough of Greenwich have ensured that the project fits into the Area Development Framework and Local Plan.

As a social enterprise who have been working within the borough for over twenty years, they provided detailed knowledge of tenant and management requirements that were continually fed into the design process.

We believe there will be ample scope to copy this building’s methodology to other sites while raising the bar on industrial design in a way that will be of national significance. This new typology has the ability to counter fast-growing residential monoculture and is intended to act as a blueprint for future workspace developments in urban contexts.