Architects are taking more and more frequently to timber construction houses and apartment blocks. Some say it is the solution to the global housing crisis, none more than Waugh Thistleton Architects. The Shoreditch-based architectural practice specialise in designing thoughtful and sustainable projects in their own city and beyond. The practice is a world leader in engineered timber and a pioneer in the field of tall timber buildings (Waugh Thistleton Architects, 2009).

Constructed in 2009, Murray Grove apartment block (fig 11) designed by Waugh Thistleton Architects has paved the way for large scale CLT buildings. It was the world’s first urban housing project to be constructed entirely from pre-fabricated CLT, from the load bearing walls and vast floor slabs, to the stair and lift cores (Yale University, 2012).   

The nine storey apartment block is a honeycomb CLT structure, meaning every wall panel throughout the building is working as a structural element. The inset balconies that sit on the corners of the building also have structural balustrades to help strengthen the outer structural wall (Yale University, 2012).  
Completed within 49 weeks, producing 29 fully insulated and soundproofed apartments, this project eloquently demonstrated that CLT is a financially beneficial, environmentally sustainable and remarkably beautiful replacement for concrete and steel for urban housing (Yale University, 2012).

  
Although the East End developer that financed this revolutionary project did not initially care for the environmental issues this project tackled, he soon realised the public did, selling all 29 apartments before construction was complete to environmentally conscious individuals that commended the carefully considered timber megastructure (Yale University, 2012).