Waugh Thistleton Architects

In 2020, Waugh Thistleton Architects were approached, as world leaders in engineered mass-timber, by a major institutional investor to provide a model design scheme to help appraise the potential of moving towards mass timber construction for future developments.

Over a 4 week period, we developed a 9 storey glulam and CLT structure for a site already in their portfolio outside of London.  We critiqued the market expectations for the style and geometry of the office floorplate, including access to healthy outdoor terraces and coordinated services carefully to create an accurate model of an efficient timber structure.  Working with frequent collaborators Gardiner and Theobald, we established a financial model of the local market, including values and typical costs, to better understand the build cost viability. Specifically, in context of letting premiums available for high quality workspaces made from biobased and carbon friendly materials, in city centres outside of London.

Appraisals of our scheme showed that timber framed buildings well designed for efficiency could effectively compete in these markets, especially in context of the ‘flight to quality’ that characterised the real estate market in the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdowns.