Dalston Lane: PEFC-certified timber stars in award winning residential building

10 December 2020 Sustainable construction

Located in east London, Dalston Lane is a multi-award winning private residential building. Nearly 34 metres high, it is one of the world’s largest load-bearing buildings made of cross laminated timber (CLT).

The landmark development, built by Waugh Thistleton Architects and B&K Structures, used PEFC-certified CLT panels for the external and core walls, right through to the floors and stairs.

Dalston Lane has a gross external area of more than 11,000 m², and incorporates 121 residential units, comprising contemporary style apartments, spread across nine floors. As well as meeting the need for high quality, high-density housing, the use of timber technology has significantly reduced the carbon footprint of the building in terms of both material production and onsite energy consumption.

Using PEFC-certified CLT from Binderholz, Dalston Lane has a negative carbon footprint, meaning that it removes more CO₂ from the atmosphere than it adds. The project’s net carbon footprint of -2,600 tonnes CO₂ represents a saving of an estimated 4,600 tonnes of CO₂ compared to equivalent concrete buildings. To put this in perspective, the carbon removed from the atmosphere in the construction of Dalston Lane is equivalent to the emissions produced by 1,703 cars over a year.

The block weighs only a fifth of a concrete building of the same size, and using CLT reduced the number of deliveries during construction by 80 per cent.

As a rapid, robust and reliable offsite manufactured solution, CLT delivers many benefits during the construction process and beyond. Manufactured to exceptional levels of accuracy in factory controlled conditions ensures minimal defects and improves construction and project delivery time, reducing costs and maximising efficiency on all levels – providing cost and programme certainty.