WorkStack

Many London Boroughs have de-restricted industrial land which is inevitably acquired for residential development, forcing production away from city centres. Designed to be affordable to rent, operate and maintain, these workshops encourage manufacturing in central London.

WorkStack’s 14 units vary between 55 – 110 sqm (600 – 1,200 sq ft.) offering tenants choice and growth within the building. The units provide workspace for approximately 60 people, equating to an employee density of 428 employees per hectare compared to the London industrial average of 69 employees per hectare. Occupiers include furniture makers, knitwear producers, workwear manufacturers and a bicycle/motorcycle workshop.

Greenwich Enterprise Board (GEB), are a social enterprise with over twenty years of experience of providing affordable workspace in the borough of 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 and provided detailed knowledge of tenant and management requirements that were continually fed into the design process. 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 distinctive cantilevered form gives the building a powerful presence on the adjoining arterial road with a minimal footprint, the progressive overhangs working as solar shading and covered delivery area. Organised in a simple and functional manner there are three units per floor, forming three structural bays stacked over five floors.  Two lifts provide the primary access to the upper floors for goods and tenants whilst a staircase is located to the inside of the eastern façade.

In keeping with the ‘log stack’ inspiration for the form, the material palette is simple. An engineered mass timber structure with limited steel, polycarbonate, glass and rubber, only introduced where required for function or regulation demanded. Each building element is designed to be as efficient as possible – a direct design without excess of any kind.

This works out as around 21% less upfront embodied carbon than LETI’s 2030 Design Target (of 350 kgCO₂ /m²), and 44% less than RIBA’s 2030 Built Target for whole life carbon (of 750 kgCO₂ /m²). The panelised construction reduces time on site, creates a safer and cleaner working environment and minimises material waste. The loadbearing timber walls and ceilings are exposed throughout. This beautiful and economical solution eliminates the need for additional internal finishes, reduces associated material resources and environmental impacts, whilst offering biophilic benefits to users. The project is on track to be BREEAM Excellent.

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. which can be integrated within mixed-use development across cities.