BERMONDSEY STREET


BUILDING PROJECTS


142 BERMONDSEY STREET CENTRAL LONDON


Timber transformation


Cross-laminated timber provided an ingenious structural solution as well as a crisply- lined urban aesthetic for the refurbishment and extension of 142 Bermondsey Street in Central London. Stephen Cousins reports


he groundbreaking structural capabilities of cross-laminated timber (CLT) have raised eyebrows in recent months through several major projects such as HAUT, the world’s tallest all-wood residential tower due to be built in Amsterdam, and the 84 metre HoHo tower project in Vienna.


T


Less well publicised is the material’s suitability for smaller scale projects faced with challenges such as restricted site access in urban areas, or limited load bearing capacity on foundations or existing structures. CLT helped breathe new life into a fast- crumbling building at 142 Bermondsey Street, in the London Borough of Southwark, where it was used to extend the property and give the interiors a soft, precisely crafted finish. Designed by Hampson Williams Architects, the high-end mixed use development has a 268 m2 gross internal area and cost approximately £660,000 to build. It comprises the extension and refurbishment of an existing unlisted post- war steel framed building to create a small one-bedroom apartment, a two-bedroom penthouse, and a retail unit at ground floor, with a separate live-work unit at the rear. A total of around 45 machine-engineered


CLT panels were installed, in combination with structural glazing, to extend the single- storey rear of the building vertically by two storeys, and create the new top storey penthouse. The penthouse features a striking cantilevered glass box that projects out over the adjacent road, lined internally by a CLT box framing views to the south. Chris Hampson, founder and director at


ADF OCTOBER 2016


21


A total of 45 machine-engineered panels were installed on the extension WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44