Stories | The Forum | Sustainability in Shoreditch

Decorative image — Green beginnings: Constructing The Black & White Building
We look back at the sustainable construction practices that underpin our Shoreditch workspace
Written by
Fora

When it came to creating The Black & White Building, our sustainable workspace in the heart of Shoreditch, we knew that we had an opportunity to do things differently. ‘Black & White’ takes its name from the monochromatically painted, low-rise brick building that stood on the site before we redeveloped it. We looked at refurbishing that building, but it just wasn’t feasible to turn it into the kind of space that we wanted it to be. The solution was to rebuild from scratch – something we were keen to do as sustainably as possible.

“When you build something like that, it’s a commitment,” says Fora Special Advisor, Charlie Green. “That commitment informs who we are and how we make decisions moving forward. Everything we do should try to make as big an impact as possible.” That’s the philosophy of The Black & White Building, which is constructed from cross laminated timber (CLT) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL), two completely circular, responsibly sourced wooden building materials with impressive sustainability credentials.

Andrew Waugh, co-founder of Waugh Thistleton Architects (WTA), who partnered with Fora to construct The Black & White Building, explains: “Using CLT creates a very low-carbon building – it was the most sustainable approach for this project. When you’re designing sustainably, you’re looking to create transformational change, and Fora’s wholesale buy-in to the project was fantastic”.

Together with WTA, we worked closely with local teams in Austria and Germany to ensure all the wood used was ethically and sustainably sourced, before being transported directly to the site in Shoreditch. By using timber, we literally locked away carbon for the lifespan of the building – that is, the CO2 that was absorbed by the trees while they were growing. This process means we've trapped 945 tonnes of carbon into the structure of The Black & White Building. That’s the equivalent carbon to a Boeing 747-400 flying for 4,059 hours.

“We take sustainability incredibly seriously as a business”, says Green. “If we can keep building new spaces from the ground up in a sustainable way, we will.”

Learn more about The Black & White Building here.