New headquarters building for furniture manufacturer Vitsœ. The structure reflects the brand’s iconic 606 Universal Shelving System with an adaptable ‘universal building system’ of engineered timber.

In 2017, British furniture manufacturer Vitsœ moved to a new headquarters and production building. The building was conceived as an extension of Vitsœ’s system-thinking. Spanning 135 metres in length, 25 metres in width and six metres in height, the structure is engineered to be modular, flexible, adaptable, and self-explanatory, with innovative material use.

The building features a timber frame, comprised of hardwood, laminated veneer lumber (LVL) members and cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls for both the envelope and internal shear walls. It’s the first building in the UK to be made almost entirely from a newly developed Beech LVL timber material. The LVL used on this project has twice the strength of typical glue-laminated timber beams.

Eckersley O’Callaghan provided the design of all timber frame elements from concept through to detailed design. To avoid piles and settlements of the ground floor slab, an innovative stabilisation technique was utilised to strengthen the made ground. As a result, only pad and strip footings were necessary to support the superstructure, which represented a significant saving in cost.

Our challenge was to design a building that could be constructed in the same spirit as Vitsoe’s own products. This has been achieved with a flexible system building that can be easily altered, dismantled and replicated anywhere in the world.

Location
Royal Leamington Spa, UK

Client
Vitsœ

Building Concept and Design
Vitsœ, Martin Francis

Delivery Architect
Waugh Thistleton