50 | Sector Focus: Timber Construction


SUMMARY


■WorkStack is a five-storey hybrid wood and steel workshop development


■The building provides 1,335m2 floor space on a footprint of 229m2


of


■The CLT has been coated with a surface spread of flame retardant


■The frame was completed in nine weeks


TAKING A STEPWISE APPROACH


WorkStack is seen as a new model for high density urban industrial building. Mike Jeffree reports


Jettying was a common technique used in medieval timber frame building. It entails the upper storeys, supported by a cantilever, jutting out above the ground level. It maximised floor space in houses that could only have a minimal footprint due to streets being narrow and crowded with people, carts, hawkers, assorted livestock, and sundry other medieval clutter. It might look precarious to the uninitiated, but experienced medieval craftspeople clearly had the knack, as many of their buildings survive centuries later. Now, dRMM Architects, renowned as an engineered timber construction pioneer, has put a modern twist on the approach with WorkStack, a five-storey hybrid wood and steel workshop development.


The building, located within the Charlton Riverside business zone in London and commissioned by the Greenwich Enterprise Board, is billed as “challenging the generic, land-hungry tin-shed default of light industrial construction”. The dramatic cantilevered design, with the top floor façade projecting 9.3m from the ground floor, has resulted in a building providing a total of 1,335m2 of just 229m2


. Besides dRMM, the team that worked on Above: WorkStack, from Woolwich Road PHOTO: DRMM STUDIO, FRED HOWARTH TTJ | July/August 2024 | www.ttjonline.com


WorkStack included engineers Arup, the builders F Parkinson, and timber specialist sub-contractors B&K Structures. Initially the ground level was to be in concrete, but, after value engineering, this was switched to a ‘podium’ floor on pile foundations and a concrete slab, comprising a steel-braced frame infilled with Lignacite masonry blocks. The core structure of the upper floors is in CLT, and, while the stairs


of floor space on a footprint


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