14th May 2021

Residential Development - Cross Laminated Timber structure completed

The Chobham Road Development, in Stratford, East London, is built in off-site fabricated cross laminated timber construction (mass timber) which essentially fits together on site like a large jigsaw puzzle. The main structure was completed in April with the other building components following on.

The structure is approximately 400m3 of timber which means this project, in its structure alone, has captured 400,000 kg of CO2 or 400 tonnes CO2 and removed this amount from atmosphere. To give this some scale a modern petrol driven car emits about 22 tonnes of CO2 over its life, so this is like removing 20 petrol cars from our roads permanently.

The off-site fabrication has gone smoothly and allowed an extremely fast and efficient site assembly surrounded by existing residents looking on amazed by the speed and quietness of construction and the beautiful results. The general contractor is reporting daily visits of people wanting to rent or buy an apartment when the development is completed.

The urban regeneration and improvement is already apparent now that the structure is up. Two intimate mews-like courtyards have been formed in areas previously used for discarding objects, fly tipping and local drug transactions.