For the last 15 years, construction company New Wave London has called an industrial 2-story headquarters in London’s Brent neighborhood home. However, it was time for a change. New Wave London reached out to longtime friends and colleagues at Thomas-McBrien Architects to tweak the layout. To retain the existing building, minimize embodied carbon, and add almost 6,500 square feet of space, the architects opted for a glulam roof extension. New Wave House nimbly reuses preexisting building materials to realize an elegant office in an area where there’s critical demand for affordable workspaces.

The new timber pavilion wisely takes advantage of the building’s load-bearing walls so that they can support the lightweight structure with minimal structural adjustments. About 43-foot-long Douglas fir glulam was delivered and cut on site in New London’s own workshop. These were then craned onto the roof. This method helped eliminate material waste, as all timber for windows, doors, and joinery, were manufactured in the workshop with the glulam offcuts. A sense of resourceful materiality continues in the roof itself, where original insulated roof panels were carefully removed from the building, stored, and then placed back.

Thomas-McBrien Architects and New Wave London prioritized reusing old materials for the project. The team salvaged and repurposed materials discarded from other New Wave London projects to reduce material waste. In addition to walls from a leftover lime render, studs, floor joists, noggins, light fittings and sockets were reused. Additionally, the team repurposed insulation and plasterboard to prevent it from going to the landfill.

While the project may be composed of scraps from other projects, the new headquarters is far from scrappy. Unfinished Troldtekt wood wool panels were strategically placed in between the large Douglas fir joists on the ceiling, offering a distinctive yet harmonious texture. Floor-to-ceiling windows reveal the lush green treetops—almost like an elegant tree house. Thomas-McBrien’s team applied light gray pigmented SiOO:X Wood Protector on the timber to protect the facade, and add subtle color to the interiors. 

The new floorplan creates space for a large joinery workshop, spraying booths, a metal fabrication workshop, and general storage for materials and building supplies, and a roof terrace. On this topmost level, the wooden joists, light sockets, and even the planter pots consider the life of the materials after its use in this current project. Barry McBrien, founder of Thomas-McBrien said in a project description, “Belonging to an industry with significant impact on climate change, we are acutely aware of our responsibility to advocate for sustainable design wherever possible. The addition of a lightweight glulam timber roof extension to a two-story industrial building in North London has created an elegant energy-efficient space that fosters local economic growth and sets a benchmark for airspace development and sustainable urban regeneration.”