A mixed-use office redevelopment, Timber Square comprises two significant buildings in Southwark’s Bankside area: the Print Building is a refurbished and dramatically extended former printworks; while the Ink Building is a 15-storey new timber-and-steel building.
Aerial view of Timber Square site; © Heyne Tillett Steel
The Print Building: a new life for a 1950s printworks
Eighty percent of the 1950s printworks building was retained in the Print Building’s refurbishment and extension. It now has six additional storeys, achieved with minimal strengthening to the frame and foundations.
“Timber allowed us to really push that, because it’s so much lighter than using a composite concrete system,” explains Tom Watson, Director, Heyne Tillett Steel. “It helps that the building used to be a large print hall, designed for very high loads.”
The Ink Building: Europe’s tallest timber-and-steel office
The new-build part of Timber Square is the Ink Building. Like the Print Building, it is a hybrid structure using timber and steel. Its 15 storeys include a new double basement and piled raft foundations.
The scheme creates new public realm space incorporating raingardens and a blue roof above its podium deck.
Keeping carbon down
“The developers, Landsec, wanted to minimize embodied carbon, retain as much of the existing building as possible, and use the maximum amount of DfMA (design for manufacture and assembly),” Tom tells us. “We pitched a hybrid structure that uses long-span steel beams and plenty of CLT, while maximizing the height of the existing printworks building.”
Work in progress at Timber Square; © Heyne-Tillett Steel
125 tonnes of reused steel was used across both buildings at Timber Square, sourced from Cleveland Steel & Tubes: around 500 beams were used primarily in and around the buildings’ cores.
“Sitting CLT on top of steel beams allows you to install double-span 12-metre-long sections. You don’t have to stop them at every beam, so it’s a very efficient installation method. The CLT spans six metres in almost all cases, and the governing design criteria was footfall vibrations.”
Developer: Landsec
Architect: Bennetts Associates
Structural Engineer/Timber Engineer: Heyne Tillett Steel
Main contractor: Mace
Timber supplier: Stora Enso
Timber engineer: Hybrid Structures
