Architecture firm Waugh Thistleton has unveiled plans to build a timber-framed office block in London's Shoreditch that will reveal its state-of-the-art structure through a series of vertical slices.
Proposed to replace the existing Development House complex at Leonard Circus, the new nine-storey office building will be among the tallest modern timber-framed buildings in the British capital.
It will boast an all-timber structure that brings together two types of engineered wood: glued laminated timber, known as glulam, and cross-laminated timber, often referred to as CLT.

Related story: Architects embrace "the beginning of the timber age"

The project is the latest example of timber's resurgence as a building material, which architects are calling "the new concrete". "CLT is the future of construction," architect Alex de Rijke of dRMM told Dezeen last year, while Waugh Thistleton director Andrew Waugh said: "This is the beginning of the timber age."

Waugh Thistleton plans to reveal the new building's wooden structure by dividing the building up into five quadrants and adding large sections of glazing in between. Passersby will clearly see the timber floor plates through these huge windows.
"Building in timber offers a number of advantages, including minimised time on site, and associated sound and waste disturbance," explained Waugh. "This translates to less impact on adjacent occupiers, street u...