Last week, the high-performing mass timber office building Paradise SE11 opened its doors. TDUK staff, including our CEO David Hopkins, were among those attending its launch, and took a tour of this impressive 6-storey structure.
Front entrance to the Paradise Building; © Paul Brannen
The building takes its name from its location: it overlooks Old Paradise Gardens, a green space with a children’s playground and sitting areas not far from Lambeth Palace.
In 2018, Bywater Properties bought the the former Costa roastery site in Vauxhall, south London. They sought to build a new, sustainable office development with high operational efficiency: to create a workspace that supports the health and wellbeing of the people within it.
Stora Enso prefabricated the 2,100 cubic metres of cross laminated timber (Sylva™ CLT floors and roofs) which were delivered by their UK partners B&K Structures. The project leveraged Stora Enso’s Sylva Services, pre-coating the Sylva™ CLT Walls and Roofs with end-grain sealer so when the elements arrived on site they were ready to install immediately.
The Sylva kit of parts only generated 110 tonnes of greenhouse gases (CO2e) to manufacture and 66 tonnes of CO2e to transport. Compared to the 1,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide that the trees removed while growing and will store in Paradise for decades, this amount is a small fraction. This avoided 2,400 tonnes of greenhouse gases, as verified by Stora Enso’s third-party-verified EPDs.
“Paradise offers a genuinely exciting opportunity,” stated Richard Walker, Chairman of Bywater Properties. “It is an exemplar ‘north star’ for the UK property sector, as we strive to reach our net zero obligations and a more sustainable built environment.”
The quality of the finished building is a testament to the skills and experience of a timber-specialist team. Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios were the project’s architects; Webb Yates were the structural engineers; while Buro Happold and Wallace Whittle were Mechanical Engineers.
Paradise Building, London SE11, ribbon cutting ceremony. Mary Creagh, CBE, MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, cutting the ribbon. May 8, 2025.
Experiencing the Paradise Building in person, it was notable how well integrated it appeared with its surroundings. The green space of Old Paradise Gardens, a railway line and local apartment blocks are all near-neighbours, and their proximity adds to the building’s sense of location – a feeling of being part of the locale.
Among the distinguished speakers at the launch was Mary Creagh – Minister for Nature and Labour MP for Coventry East. She pointed to the Paradise Building as a great example of the kind of construction needed in order to build sustainably, and reiterated her government’s endorsement of the Timber in Construction Roadmap.
It was gratifying to hear Minister Creagh refer to the Roadmap’s key commitments to increase timber in construction, and the production of homegrown sustainable timber.
Read our 2023 interview with Theo Michell, Co-Founder, Bywater Properties about the Paradise Building
