Construction for the Post-Industrial Age
Everything we do now should be done with our planet in mind, says leading architect Andrew Waugh – this especially includes our built environment. His practice Waugh Thistleton is at the forefront of tall timber design with its pioneering use of cross laminated timber (CLT) and proving that positive mantra can be achieved.
Through the 1980’s and 90’s engineers and scientists in Switzerland and Austria worked with sophisticated harmless new adhesives laminating timber planks in perpendicular layers to form large panels. The genius of these simple panels is to create a building material that is light, adaptable and very strong. Commercial production began in Austria in the late 90’s. By 2008 50,000m3 a year were produced in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and by 2017, more than a 1 million cubic metres will be produced across the world.
In 2003 my practice built the first CLT panel building in the UK – a 45m2, three-storey extension for classical musician Joji Hattori in South London. It was a small but perfect experience. Three carpenters built this accurate little building on a Saturday afternoon, craned directly off the delivery truck. We took the notion of that modest building and extrapolated it. To face the two challenges for contemporary architecture – climate change and urban densification – how can we build up our cities without exacerbating climate change? Through our experience of the Hattori building we contemplated of a city built from timber and of a new timber age for architecture.
We drew a lot of timber buildings over the next few years but no one was interested. So we honed our argument. We demonstrated that this a very quick method of construction – very quick. We demonstrated to our clients that we could build buildings in half the time with half the people onsite, less deliveries and less foundations. We got better and better at this argument. Alongside this we got better at politics. Politics with our clients and local politics. We were able to encourage local politicians that by using timber we could build truly sustainable buildings quietly and with half the construction traffic.
In April 2007 we presented our ideas to a housing co-op for a building in Shoreditch, East London. We took the principle of the design to the local authority and were permitted two extra storeys – we presented this at the feet of our client and with other facts – it was faster, less expensive and cheaper – they bit. By January 2008 we started construction and by January 2009 the first people were living there. It was a fast ride.
Proposing a nine storey timber building was a challenge in many ways and we had only weeks to demonstrate it was feasible. Between us, the Engineer Techniker, the manufacturer KLH and finally our client, we raced around the UK persuading, encouraging and cajoling people not into immediately signing off the structure but into becoming part of the design team. We could not have built this building without the enthusiasm and passion of everyone involved. The completion of Stadthaus changed the perception of timber construction forever. Our vision to demonstrate that timber is a viable alternative to concrete and steel was built.
Every September we give a public talk about timber architecture outside Stadthaus as part of the Open House weekend. Invariably a resident of the building will come down and tell us all what it's like to live there – that they can't hear the neighbours or they have never used the heating. Because beyond the fact that we are using this wonderfully renewable carbon based material, is that timber is a beautiful material to build in. Timber builds healthy breathing buildings – buildings fit for people to live in.
We are learning more about how the material works on each building we complete. To meet energy-use codes the envelope of the building must meet a certain thermal resistance. We know that timber has a completely different thermal dynamic to masonry – timber manages a temperature equilibrium, cooler in summer and warmer in winter. In each of our timber buildings the thermal performance outstrips expectation. We shouldn't be surprised, timber is a natural material, prone to the same climatic conditions that we are.
Since 2009 we have built seven more CLT buildings, I now live in one! Our latest project Dalston Lane is 17,000m2, ten storeys tall and built for a large UK housebuilder. On this project another piece of the puzzle was completed – we were able to transfer the 3D design drawings from our computers directly to the engineer and then the same file was migrated to the CLT factory where the timber panels were cut precisely to size, with window and door openings cut out and recesses routed for services. Prefabrication this precise allowed the panels to be assembled onsite with accuracy unknown to twentieth century construction methods. Prefabrication takes preparation. A little more time spent at the earlier stages of the job ensured that all the pieces were present and correct. Through this digital connection the architect is brought so much closer to the process of construction.
We are learning at a faster rate than I thought possible in architecture, we are once again beginning to understand how the materials we build with can influence the architecture we create. We are at the beginning of an evolutionary process, as the first cars resembled carriages, our buildings are very similar in conception to their concrete forebears. The typology developed a hundred years ago through the re-discovery of concrete is deeply embedded in our creative psyche, the visual references that we hold for buildings are concrete ones. Beyond this, the processes of construction are still steeped in concrete and the disciplines, the contracts and the building sites we see around us are those of an ‘industrial age’. Moving rapidly forward into a climate-sensitive culture these processes by necessity must be completely re-configured.
We are truly seeing the emergence of a timber age in architecture. We are now working alongside architects such as Richard Rogers in the UK, SHOP in the USA and with Shigeru Ban on a project in London. We have students and professors from around the world knocking on our door every week with bags full of questions. It is exciting times. For now we need to do two things: we need to quickly learn how to re-build our cities naturally, beautifully and efficiently. And we need to grow more trees. We need to fill our planet full of trees, soak up the carbon and re-fuel the soil. We need to do this now, because although our timber buildings go up quickly trees really do grow very slowly.
For more information visit: www.waughthistleton.com
