An exemplary low-impact office fit-out of Europe's largest Climate Tech hub, by U-Build, our modular construction system

Our modular construction system, U-Build was used by Sustainable Ventures in their fit-out of Sustainable Workspaces at London’s County Hall.

Our team worked with Sustainable Ventures CIC to create removable partitions, phone booths and furniture for their co-working space in Central London, overlooking the Thames, as part of a two phase occupancy. They wanted a solution that they could install immediately on the third floor of the building, and then take with them when they moved upstairs to the larger fifth floor, two years later.

For the second phase of the installation, the partitions were reincorporated into a wider retrofit of the fifth floor by Material Works architects.

The result is a solution that is flexible enough to evolve with the organisation and the start-ups they support. U-Build has also become a member of the Sustainable Ventures community, and has already helped incorporate a number of additions to the design to suit incoming businesses.

A genuinely circular fit out

The U-Build team worked with Material Works on a design that would maximise reusability, with standard U-Build modular boxes used for around 95% of the walls.

For the remaining 5%, a completely new innovation was created: an adjustable U-Build module known as a ‘compression box’. The U-Build compression box tightens against the concrete frame of the building using a flat plate, and turns the assembly into a solid partition, without a single fixing into the building. The adjustable nature of the box serves a second function – to close up small gaps – and can also be fitted with a seal for added acoustic performance

As the partitions have no fixings, the landlord classified them as furniture, which did not break the terms of the lease. The work extended to cover other items, including desks, storage units, office pods and lockers.