A Look at London’s Timber Revolution

We took a look at the innovative use of timber in architecture, interiors and design across the residential and commercial sectors, a topic at one of the sessions within the comprehensive speaker programme of the last edition of ARCHITECT@WORK London.

Among this year’s programme was a session entitled Timber Inside and Out. Very much in keeping with ARCHITECT@WORK London’s theme of People + Planet: designing from the ground up, this discussion looked at how London has become one of the most innovative centres for the use of wood in the built environment, whether that’s in the home, at work or in the civic or hospitality sectors through the experiences of a variety of expert panellists, chaired by curator and cultural strategist Vanessa Norwood.

With its diverse cultural fabric, the UK capital has always been able to take on global learnings in order to innovate and to this end, Linda Thiel, director of the London studio of White Arkitekter, one of Scandinavia’s leading architectural practices has shared her experiences. Among White Arkitekter’s projects that ably demonstrate the firm’s commitment to being a model for sustainable design and construction is the Sara Cultural Centre in Skellefteå, just below the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden. Comprising venues for arts, performance and literature as well as a hotel, this scheme is one of the world’s tallest timber buildings to date.

Charles Tashima brings substantial architectural experience, heading up his eponymous London-based studio. He and his team sensitively examine the life of wood, its capacity to serve as a tangible record of memory and time as well as its resilience and adaptability. In over twenty years in practice, Charles Tashima Architecture has used reclaimed wood for different applications and in different forms, as wall finishes, furniture plus reusing furniture, windows and objects from oak from piers to wooden roller shutters to an old brewery door. This is exemplified by the Monmouth Road project, where large timber boards carefully taken down, cleaned and reused.

Furniture designer craftsman and environmentalist Sebastian Cox, meanwhile, takes a ‘nature first’ perspective when creating what he describes as ‘heirloom furniture’. The company which bears his name has a mission to ‘design and make for a better future’. It does this through its zero-waste, carbon-counting workshop and studio in London as well as managing its own woodlands for biodiversity and resources in Broome Wood, Kent. Sebastian Cox has ambitious targets too: not only storing 100 tonnes of Co2 in the things it makes every year: furniture, lights, accessories and more but doubling the area of wild land and woodland in Britain by 2040.

SODA Studio is a practice that has been embracing diverse forms of design, showing that creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit go hand in hand for over a decade, working for clients as varied as landed estates and international developers to private individuals and ambitious start-ups. Among its portfolio is the new home for media brand Courier Media in east London. The project creates both public and private experience using a combination of raw and refined finishes. Materials include timber, which has been used to frame these different spaces. A mid-century-style colour palette of neutral tones with splashes of colour was used for furniture and fabrics.