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PROJECT REPORT: COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS
and certifying the structure using full-scale mock ups – in collaboration with specialist sub-contractor B&K Structures.
Ambitious beginnings
Paradise SE11 is located on a hemmed-in site directly alongside the main railway line into Waterloo, just a few minutes walk from the Albert Embankment. It takes its name from Old Paradise Gardens, a small park running alongside.
The height and footprint of the building went through several iterations during planning as the block was progressively fl attened to avoid impinging on protected views across Westminster and towards Big Ben. Simon Richardson, senior associate at FCBS tells ADF: “Every time the building got lower, the footprint had to get bigger, just to make the project viable, now it takes up almost 95% of the site curtilage.” The initial brief didn’t call for a timber building, but as the architect assessed different options with the structural engineer, it became clear that engineered wood, if used throughout, could potentially offset most of the embodied carbon and operational emissions.
Bywater got on board with the concept, however the extent of the ambition for timber were impacted by the Hackitt Review of Building Regulations and fi re safety in 2018, following Grenfell, bringing concerns over fi re risks to the fore. During the design process, it was a case
of “working backwards” from the position of a fully mass timber building with a “heightened focus on non-combustible materials,” and a plan to thoroughly test any combustible structures to ensure safety, says Richardson.
Chunky glulam columns and beams
and CLT fl oor slabs make up the majority of the building structure. Supporting columns run from ground to fi fth fl oor through the middle of the building and from ground to second fl oor around the perimeter.
Steel columns are used above the second
fl oor around the perimeter, as part of a drive to eliminate combustible materials from the facade, as well as provide support for the horizontal glazing.
Concrete was omitted from the scheme almost entirely, apart from in the two stair and lift cores, where a proposed all-timber solution was considered “one innovation too far” by the fi re services,
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK ADF FEBRUARY 2026
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