Case Studies
Infrastructure Projects – John Lawrie Tubulars
Repurposed steel for construction and infrastructure projects. The examples here include the Port of Dundee east redevelopment, and Whood Wharf, London ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Multiple
Key Materials:
Steel
LAMILUX Glass Skylight FE Passivhaus: Product Finalist – Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards
Product finalist in the 2025 Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards. Advanced thermal efficiency, Passivhaus certification and attractive design options in various sizes and configurations – fixed, operable and smoke vent ...
Ecococon: Product Winner – Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards
Product winner in the 2025 Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards. Made from renewable timber and straw, the prefabricated panels combine excellent thermal performance with natural vapour permeability and impressive carbon storage ...
Topic:
Natural Materials
The Seed: Small Projects Winner – Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards
Small Projects finalist in the 2025 Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards. It offers a shining example of how Passivhaus can work in locations with difficult site constraints and restricted solar gain ...
Topic:
Natural Materials
Location:
Dundee
Key Materials:
Mass Timber, Natural Fibre Insulation
Goldsmith Street: Large Projects Winner – Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards
Large Projects finalist in the 2025 Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards. this 93-home Passivhaus project seamlessly blends stunning design with social purpose, creating light-filled, community-focused homes where annual energy bills can be as low as £150 ...
Topic:
Natural Materials
Location:
Norwich
Key Materials:
Timber, Natural Fibre Insulation
Diasen Diathonite Thermactive: Products Finalist – Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards
A finalist in the 2025 Exemplar Sustainable Awards product category, Diasen Diathonite Thermactive.037 is a breathable lime and cork-based insulating plaster that delivers thermal performance with low embodied carbon ...
Topic:
Natural Materials
Ward Grove: Retrofit Projects Winner – Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards
Retrofit Projects finalist in the 2025 Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards. Ward Grove is a whole-home transformation that demonstrates how deep retrofit can deliver exceptional energy performance, long-term comfort, and inclusive design ...
Topic:
Natural Materials
Location:
Urmston, Greater Manchester
Key Materials:
Timber, Natural FIbre Insulation
PACER: Initiative Winner – Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards
Initiative finalist in the 2025 Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards. PACER (Planning Application Carbon Evaluation and Reduction) is a first-of-its-kind digital platform that empowers Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) with the tools to enforce whole life carbon (WLC) policies in the planning process ...
Topic:
Tools
Coaction Training CIC: Initiative Finalist – Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards
Initiative finalist in the 2025 Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards. Coaction is a collective of highly experienced low energy practitioners who have come together to share their knowledge within the construction industry ...
Topic:
Training
MDF Recovery: Initiative Finalist – Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards
Initiative finalist in the 2025 Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards - The world’s first circular economy solution for MDF waste ...
Workstack: Large Projects Finalist – Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards
Large Projects finalist in the 2025 Exemplar Sustainable Building Awards. WorkStack is a thoughtful response to the growing pressure on urban industrial land and the rising demand for sustainable, affordable workspace in London ...
Topic:
Natural Materials
Location:
London
Key Materials:
Mass Timber, Steel
J Mould’s Recycling Centre
Showcasing a forward-thinking approach to integrating reclaimed materials, including steel sections, into new and existing developments ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Reading
Key Materials:
Steel
P&J Live Building
Using John Lawrie Tubulars’ repurposed tubular products and bespoke procedures saved this project 4,165.7 t CO2e. (That’s a 97.21% saving over using new prime steel products). John Lawrie Tubulars supplied more than 2,000 tonnes of pipe and casing, safely recycled from the oilfield wells of Aberdeen’s major North Sea operators ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Aberdeen
Key Materials:
Steel
Recovering Steel for Reuse at the Former Honda Factory
This project involves the demolition and recovery of steel from several warehouses at Panattoni Park, one of the largest demolition sites in the UK, covering over 370 acres ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Swindon
Recovering Steel and Reuse at 20 Giltspur Street
This ambitious project includes structural modifications to the existing building and the addition of new features, aiming to maximise net usable space while significantly reducing the carbon footprint ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
London
Recovering Steel for Reuse at 180 Piccadilly
Demolishing of two adjoining buildings to create an 8-storey mixed-use development, reusing steel from the original structure and incorporating reclaimed steel, expanding the space to 67,700 sq ft for office, retail, and leisure use ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
London
Morph Bricks
Modular construction system manufactured from injection-moulded, eco-friendly materials. bricks interlock to form multiple product designs including partition walls, freestanding rooms and furniture ...
Rylands Building
As a major refurbishment, the project retains residual value by reusing the structural floor slabs and primary structural frame, while restoring the existing façade and other architecturally significant internal features ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Manchester
Key Materials:
Steel
Tubular Steel Reuse – Cleveland Steel and Tubes
Repurposed steel for construction and infrastructure projects. The examples here include the Port of Dundee east redevelopment, and Whood Wharf, London ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Multiple
Optima Glass Partitions
This case study features 3 examples of glass partition reuse at meeting rooms and offices across London. This demonstrates significant carbon savings over using new partitions, with Optima offering design, manufacturing, installation, and maintenance ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Multiple
Oasis Nature Building
Community education building, acting as a recipient project for reuse elements from 22 Baker Street. The project will implement Circular Economy principles and processes in the construction of the new Oasis Nature Building and the aim is to build it exclusively out of pre-used materials ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
London
22 Baker Street
Cat A fit out of an office building refurbishment in Baker Street, London. Reuse elements: Internal fire doors, glazed balustrade, wood veneered bulkhead, external doors (metal and timber), MDF wall cladding, existing steel beams and intumescent paint, feature stair structure, and raised access floors ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
London
Springfield Meadows
Comfortable, high-performance homes providing low-carbon living, thanks to the use of Greencore Construction‘s innovative hemp-lime Biond Building System ...
Topic:
Natural Materials
Location:
Oxfordshire
Key Materials:
Natural Fibre Insulation, Lime, Timber
107 Niddrie Road
Retrofited to EnerPHit standards, this project utilises a range of natural materials including wood fibre and sheep’s wool insulation to drastically reduce energy bills for the tenants while providing them with a healthy internal environment ...
Topic:
Natural Materials
Location:
Glasgow
Key Materials:
Natural Fibre Insulation
Harris Academy Sutton
The UK’s first Passivhaus certified secondary school was designed by Architype and celebrates natural, low carbon materials that bring a calm and inspiring air. A high-quality, elegant and innovative building that sets a demanding yet achievable benchmark for future education projects ...
Topic:
Natural Materials
Location:
Sutton, London
Key Materials:
Mass Timber
Steel reuse for offshore wind farm
An offshore wind farm required 3 cable ducts to be drilled under the seafloor, and then cables inserted to bring power back to land. This was achieved with reuse steel sections ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Wick, Scotland
Meridian Water
This is a case study where steel reuse was considered, but it was deemed unlikely to be feasible. Enfield Council’s Meridian Water project is a £6bn flagship regeneration project in Edmonton that will provide 10,000 homes and 6,000 jobs in the borough ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Enfield, London
Elephant & Castle Town centre redevelopment
A new town centre is emerging at Elephant and Castle. This is a complex, long-term regeneration project that involves the redevelopment of the 1960s Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre and an adjacent University Arts London (UAL) site. The project includes four buildings, and steel reuse is planned to be incorporated ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Southwark, London
Brent Cross Town Primary Substation
Brent Cross Town is one of the largest urban regeneration projects in Europe. Brent Cross Town required a new 80MVA substation to provide renewable electricity to the new development, including the 6,700 new homes, 3 million sq ft of offices and new retail and leisure spaces ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Brent Cross, London
The Entopia Building (DISRUPT)
The Entopia Building is the new headquarters for the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), part of the University of Cambridge. The 1930s neo-Georgian style building is a former telephone exchange used for offices since the 1990s ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Cambridge
Holbein Gardens (DISRUPT)
This project is a redevelopment and one-storey extension of a 1980s office building off Sloane Square in Belgravia, creating a 25,000 sq ft modern workplace ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Sloane Square, London
Sloane Square House
As part of CEG’s London headquarters refurbishment, the project involves adding a two-story extension totalling 210m2 (GIA) to the existing 1950s office block built on top of Sloane Square Underground Station ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Sloane Square, London
55 Great Suffolk Street
55 Great Suffolk Street is a 15,000 sq ft historic Grade II Listed warehouse in Southwark distinguished by its Victorian architecture. This project seeks to create a highly-sustainable modern workspace, while minimising embodied carbon and preserving the building’s unique heritage ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Southwark, London
Steel reuse agricultural buildings
Simple Works is designing agricultural sheds using reclaimed steel supplied by Cleveland Steel and Tubes. The system utilises reclaimed steel tubes to create portal frame structures consisting of pitched welded trusses ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
North Yorkshire
Steel reuse domestic refurbishment project
This is a residential refurbishment project of a 2-storey 3-bedroom detached house with incorporated steel reuse. The building once had an integral garage as part of the house, which had previously been converted into a dining area ...
Location:
Lichfield, West Midlands
Holbein Gardens
Refurbishment and 1 storey extension of offices in Sloane Square, London. Reuse elements: Structural steel, ground floor paving. 34% of steel specified is reuse, accounting for a 60tCO₂e saving in upfront carbon, with the project on track to achieve 300kg/CO₂e/m² total carbon saving and is a LETI Pioneer Project ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
London
Key Materials:
Steel
CISL Entopia Building
Deep retrofit of former 1930s Telephone Exchange at 1 Regent Street, Cambridge. Reuse elements include Steel for a PV canopy, lighting, raised access flooring, reception desk, furniture. The project saved 21,000kg CO₂e through use of reclaimed materials ...
Topic:
Reuse
Location:
Cambridge
Key Materials:
Natural FIbre Insulation, Lime, Cork, Steel
CHARM virtually plastic free homes
The new homes are constructed using timber panels from GreenSquareAccord’s award winning, low carbon manufacturing facility, LoCaL Homes. Plastic has been removed wherever possible, with alternatives installed, including metal, timber, and mineral solutions ...
Topic:
Reducing plastics
Location:
Redditch
Key Materials:
Natural Fibre Insulation, Timber, Copper
The Old Fox Yard
The project involved the restoration, refurbishment and adaptation of a Grade II listed timber framed 17th century coaching inn. The design approach was to creatively preserve, integrate and showcase its heritage value while pioneering sustainable construction techniques ...
Topic:
Natural materials
Location:
Suffolk
Zetland Passive House
The Zetland Passive House project is the UK’s first certified EnerPHit Plus building. Originally built in 1894, this Passivhaus project is intended to provide a blueprint for retrofitting the UK’s 8 million pre-1930’s, hard to treat homes ...
Topic:
Natural materials, health and wellbeing
Location:
Manchester
SNUG Forest Road
The Forest Road SNUG home is the first of its kind. An offsite, custom-build, net zero-carbon home, built with the community, that challenges the idea of what a ‘house’ is. The SNUG is a two-storey 44m2 1 bedroom, 1 person home, with a small footprint to fit neatly into back ...
Topic:
Net zero
Location:
Bristol
Highpoint Terrace
Highpoint Terrace is an 8-storey CLT building providing 115 social housing units for Peabody Housing Association which has been delivered by Eurban as part of MACE's regeneration of the London Hotel site at Elephant and Castle ...
Location:
London
Squash
Squash is a creative food enterprise in Liverpool 8, led by a diverse group of local people. In 2014 they asked URBED to work with them to develop a new home, that opened in 2018. This timber-framed and timber-clad building was designed in collaboration with its users. It creates a ...
Topic:
Natural materials
Location:
Liverpool
Larch Corner
From its structure to its insulation, its cladding to its light fittings almost every fibre of this contemporary 3-bedroom single storey home has its origins in sustainably sourced timber – not only reducing emissions during processing and manufacture but curtailing carbon emissions during use. A certified Passivhaus accompanied by a ...
Topic:
Mass timber
Location:
Warwickshire
Geanaisean
The ambition for the house project, Geanaisean, was to deliver a certified Passivhaus using natural and healthy building materials. By coupling the Passivhaus standard with the MAKAR off-site n-Sip panel system, a huge reduction in energy demand was achieved in a healthy and sustainable manner ...
Topic:
Natural materials
Location:
Ross-shire
Green Tiles Annexe
Green Tiles Annexe is a light, self-built extension to a timber bungalow in Happisburgh, Norfolk. Constructed over three years, it uses sustainable materials like cellulose insulation and reused components, including railway sleeper foundations and offcut furniture. The project cost just £25,000 and has a low carbon footprint ...
Topic:
Natural materials
Location:
North Norfolk
Old Holloway
This project is a seductively simple rural self-build Passivhaus dwelling utilising an innovative pre-fabricated straw/timber system. The small single-storey family home has a pitched roof, south facing verandah and charred timber cladding which gives a nod to the local Herefordshire agri-vernacular ...
Topic:
Natural materials
Location:
Herefordshire
Cuerden Valley Park Visitor Centre and Café
The Cuerden Valley Park (CVP) Visitor Centre and café, includes office space for the Park Rangers and a classroom area designed by Straw Works Ltd, and built by Straw Works, with the Park Trust and volunteers, and sub contractors. Built entirely out of natural materials, with car tyre foundations, this ...
Topic:
Natural materials
Location:
Preston
Bowman’s Lea
The project is a whole-house deep retrofit of a 1978 mid-terrace townhouse and is the first certified step-by-step Enerphit (Passivhaus standard for retrofit) in the UK. The 3 storey property was purchased in 2016 though only a very small budget was available to carry out building work. The first step ...
Topic:
Natural materials
Location:
Honor Oak, Lewisham
Houlston Manor
Lime Green's Warmshell wood fibre insulation system was used to externally insulate a 17th century box farmhouse in Shropshire ...
Topic:
Natural materials
Location:
Shropshire
The Enterprise Centre
The Enterprise Centre is an award-winning low carbon development that pioneers natural and locally sourced building materials, whilst also meeting stringent fabric first standards ...
Topic:
Natural materials
Location:
Norwich