16 Chart Street is a redevelopment of an existing 1930s masonry warehouse located in Hoxton, to create new headquaters for Heyne Tillett Steel. The four-storey building has been repurposed and the area increased to include a new side extension, an additional storey on the roof and a new central staircase. Conceived as a workshop and studio space, the new floor level has been designed to promote collaboration featuring a flexible, column free space with four rows of 10m long, north-light windows - maximising indirect light.
B&K Structures supplied and installed the cross laminated timber, glulam, and Bau Buche beams, and the elements of structural steel, to support the refurbishment of the existing three storey building into new commerical space, with the addition of a one storey CLT roof extension and external structural staircase. Our design team provided the temporary works for the propping of the structure during installation and worked very closely with Heyne Tillett Steel to contribute to the design and development of their connection details.
The CLT has been left exposed throughout the building, mimicking the exposed masonry finishes of the original building. With exposed connections and articulation of joints, when seen collectively this forms a pleasing variation of material intersections between the old and the new, allowing the spaces to have their own character whilst retaining a familiarity throughout. The end result being a considered and didactic expression of the building's construction; expressed panel joints, exposed lamellas, and undisguised connections all demonstrating the buildings sequencing.
With embodied carbon calculations in mind, the scheme was able to reuse most of the existing building and incorporate CLT to help reduce the upfront embodied carbon of the building. The extensions were predominantly built with CLT and engineered tmber, provided by Stora Enso, lowering embodied carbon and speeding up construction. Through low-carbon structural design and the reuse of the existing structure, the project has acheoved the LETI and RIBA 2030 targets for embodied carob.
Awards
Winner of Structural Timber Awards - Commercial Project of the Year 2021
Shortlisted at the Wood Awards 2021 - Buildings Category
Winner of AJ Retrofit Awards 2022 - AJ Retrofit of the Year & Workplace up to 5m