WorkStack Greenwich, London mass timber building, Woolwich Road light industrial architecture design

WorkStack Greenwich, London mass timber building

20 May 2025

Non-profit organization in southeast London, England, UK

Design: dRMM architects

Address: 599 Woolwich Rd, London SE7 7GS, United Kingdom

photo : Fred Howarth

WorkStack by dRMM – A RIBA London Awards 2025 winner

Jury citation:

WorkStack Greenwich Building

This building represents a novel way to intensify sites for light industrial use by going up rather than building single-storey groundscrapers. The five-floor building occupies a modest-sized but prominent site, forming a sculptural landmark element along a busy but otherwise unremarkable road in Greenwich. The layout is simple, with three units per floor and a tight core that includes a large service elevator.

photo : Fred Howarth

The building’s form is a clever response to the client’s brief to provide a number of light industrial units of different sizes. The 14 units vary between 55 and 110 square metres, encouraging occupiers to remain in the building as they grow. For increased floor space on the tight plot, each floor cantilevers out as it goes up. This has the added advantage of providing shading to the floor below and a covered area to the loading bay on the ground floor, and also resulted in reduced foundations that require 25% less concrete.

photo : Fred Howarth

A determination to reduce embodied and whole-life carbon has driven the design decisions. Above ground-floor level the building is constructed of exposed cross-laminated timber (CLT). This is clad externally in corrugated steel, with polycarbonate and clear opening windows providing light into the units. The central units on each floor do not have rear windows enabling cross ventilation; instead, a mechanical extraction system is used only when necessary. The other units are naturally ventilated.

photo : Alex de Rijke

Each element of the building is designed to be as efficient as possible, without detriment to the quality. When building regulations would not allow a timber staircase, the architects chose metal grating instead, to reduce the amount of steel used. The staircase floats in the stair shaft and sits off the walls, resulting in no scuff marks on the pristine CLT walls. Toilets are bright and colourful.

As expected, electrical and plumbing services are exposed but read alongside the exposed CLT. There is a warmth to the units that is unexpected in this type of accommodation. It is not surprising that the building has attracted creative industries, wonderful furniture makers, knitwear producers and a bicycle workshop. This design demonstrates a new way of conceiving sustainable high-density industrial buildings that would happily sit in mixed-use areas of the city.

photo : Will Scott