The wider adoption of mass-timber construction isn’t just a building technique but has major implications for interior design. Wood is one of the most sustainable raw materials (if grown and harvested sustainably) and can even offer biophilic benefits to users. These four timber offices are putting their construction on full display, embracing the look of exposed wood in their interiors.

Wood makes way for circular construction

Klouboucká Lesní’s new headquarters in Czech town Brumov-Bylnice reflects the company’s sustainable vision for the future of timber production. Mjölk Architekti’s design is an exposed loadbearing structure made from glued laminated timber, manufactured close to the site. It transforms the workspace – partly open to the public – into a collaborative laboratory. The modular shell rhythmically breaks up the floorplan, providing highly flexible spaces that can adapt to diverse working and leisure requirements. Exposed wires, ducts, bolts, and movable glazed acoustic partitions elaborate on the building’s honest, transparent language. Concrete floors and ceilings counterbalance the timber look and lend the sleek, modern feel of a space designed for knowledge building and technological advancement. The building is a physical representation of Klouboucká Lesní’s innovative and experimental values. Many of Mjölk Architekti’s design choices centre around circularity, and the building’s interior layout goes a step further by embedding sustainability at a programmatic level. 

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Wood structures as interior ornaments

Oslotre designed the architecture and interiors of Lumber 4, a six-storey mass timber mixed-use commercial and office building in Kristiansand, Norway. It is a mass-timber construction with columns and beams made of glued laminated timber. Wood elements are prominent throughout the interiors with load-bearing structures exposed and walls are clad with white-pigmented spruce panels. Wood fibre insulation and wood wool panels are present for internal climate and acoustic control. The floors are constructed of a composite structure of CLT and concrete and visible pipes are painted in a light beige colour to blend in with the mostly wooden interiors. Exposed wood interiors resulting from mass-timber construction can make additional finishes unnecessary and are ‘strongly linked to user wellbeing’, after all, designers ‘often [have]  to add materials like wood to create the inviting, warm feeling desired by [their] clients’, we wrote about what mass-timber buildings mean for interior design.

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Timber construction puts sustainability values on display

Designed by De Zwarte Hond, the 21,000-sq-m complex – located in Amsterdam’s Westpoort area – includes an office building, workshops, warehouses, test facilities and an educational and parking area. Headquarters to 700 employees representing three Alliander companies, it was conceived through a lens of sustainability and resiliency. Collaborating with with IMd Raadgevende Ingenieurs, DGMR, De Urbanisten, COARE Interieur and Copper8, De Zwarte Hond utilized as many circular materials – and as little glue, PU foam and sealant – as possible, focusing primarily on wood. The interior’s all-timber construction gives way to an open, large atrium, rhythmically planned workspaces and a ‘wandering staircase’ that facilitates spontaneous interactions between users and engaging navigation through the space. With ‘greenhushing’ – or the reluctance for entities to communicate green initiatives for fear of backlash – on the rise, overt shows of eco-responsibility are important. In the built environment, they create pressure for other organizations to consider how to make their operations more circular.

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Timber can transform industrial areas into sustainable workplaces

Greenwich Enterprise Board commissioned DRMM to create Charlton WorkStack, an affordable and high-density manufacturing office site in Greenwich, London. WorkStack also sequesters 343 metric tonnes of carbon, highlighting its credentials as a sustainable co-working space. WorkStack, the name of the space, alludes to the timber engineered to stack in a compact space and the cantilevered façade of the building that resembles a log stack. The timber structure includes select steel, polycarbonate, glass and rubber elements. The several overhangs work as solar shading and a covered delivery area for users. Throughout the inside of the space, the exposed load-bearing timber walls and ceilings creates a shed-like atmosphere. The designer did not add any additional finishes, reducing environmental impacts, while also offering biophilic benefits to users. Timber – a biophilic alternative to concrete and plaster – is becoming an increasingly popular office material because it has variety of sustainable benefits for the planet and employees. DRMM shows how manufactured timber can transform industrial areas into sustainable, compact environments with high-density structures. 

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