The UK’s largest cross-laminated timber mixed-use development by volume and the country’s tallest hybrid timber and steel frame scheme with two workplace buildings; retrofit and new build.

A major mixed-use workplace development in Bankside that combines deep retrofit with one of the largest hybrid timber office structures in the UK. Developed by Landsec as a long-term retained asset, the project demonstrates how engineered timber can support commercially viable, high performance workplace design at significant urban scale.

The scheme comprises two buildings arranged around a new public square. The Print Building retains and extends a former 1959 printworks, preserving around 80% of the existing structure while adding four lightweight storeys above. Alongside it, the new Ink Building combines a steel primary structure with cross laminated timber floor slabs to create flexible, office space with exposed timber interiors and terraces on almost every level.

The hybrid steel and CLT approach reduced structural weight, enabling extension of the retained building
while limiting additional strengthening to the existing structure. Offsite fabricated timber elements supported Design for Manufacture and Assembly principles, improving programme certainty on a constrained urban site and reducing wet trades, deliveries and construction impacts.

Exposed timber soffits contribute to the character of the interiors, reducing the need for suspended ceilings and additional finishes while supporting generous floor to ceiling heights. Timber also formed a central part of the project’s embodied carbon strategy. Retention of the existing structure combined with the hybrid timber approach significantly reduces upfront carbon compared with a conventional commercial office development.

The project addresses technical challenges associated with timber in tall commercial buildings. Independent fire testing of the CLT build-up was commissioned during the design phase to understand performance and to inform the fire protection strategy.

Beyond its environmental and structural benefits, he project demonstrates how timber construction can move into mainstream commercial development. CLT helps to shape a resource efficient and materially characterful architecture that feels calm, legible and humane.