The Alex Monroe Studio

About this project

The Project

Jewellery designer Alex Monroe’s new Southwark studio was awarded the inaugural Wood Excellence Prize at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore in October 2014. Chosen from a shortlist of projects from around the globe with the only criteria being wood as an integral part, the project combined a structure of KLH engineered timber, with a facade of finely wrought zinc.

An extension to a small single-storey Edwardian-era shop, the studio is entirely made of pre-fabricated structural panels that are left exposed on the inside and complemented with built-in furniture made from the same timber.

The façade is clad with high quality pigmented zinc, inspired by the wide range of materials visible locally, whilst having a slightly dark grey-bronze tonality.

In total 38 cubic meters of KLH cross-laminated timber was used in the construction, equivalent to 30.4 tonnes of CO2 sequestered and stored. When the 3.3 tonnes of CO2 that was emitted in transporting the KLH panels from Austria to London are deducted that equals a Net gain of 27.1 tonnes of CO2 removed from the atmosphere and safely stored in this fabulous building.

Photography by Dennis Gilbert