Shacklewell Lane

Hackney, 2021

Although one of our smallest projects this new extension has had a transformation impact on this cramped Victorian maisonette using cranked and tapered glulam frames to create a new living space linking the existing property into the rear garden spaces. From the start the project’s aspirations were to both be a low embodied carbon exemplar but also to touch the existing building lightly – avoiding the requirement for large structural interventions to the existing building fabric.

Team: Architect: Charabanc
Main contractor: Patriot Services ltd
Specialist glulam subcontractor: Sebastian Cox

Materials: Low carbon concrete
Mixed species UK grown glulam timber with oak dowel site connections
Bespoke steelwork baseplate and hanger connections

Awards: Don’t Move improve (longlisted, 2024)

Design

Initial sketches collaboratively explored ways to craft a new ‘lean-to’ timber structure to form the new butterfly profile roof – and how we could achieve the ambition to minimise any intervention to the existing building.

Detail

Alongside the architect and fabricator we refined a structural geometry of tapered glulam frames and developed lamination layouts and proposals for the site jointed oak dowelled connections.

Manufacture

In parallel with the specialist furniture maker Sebastian Cox we agreed a programme of testing for the cranked glulam elements, each fabricated from a range of UK grown timbers including several not traditionally used for structural purposes.

Build

Integrating site splices allowed the glulam frames to be split into smaller manageable elements able to be carried through the existing building and spliced on site with expressed dowelled connections.