Designing Timber issue 10 for online - Flipbook - Page 19
———— OLD NEWTON PRIMARY ————
IF_DO developed a concept
design which was optimized
with support from Natural
Building Systems to utilise its
o昀昀site-manufactured panel
system, ADEPT. A kit-ofparts system, ADEPT’s wall
panels and roof cassettes
are made from timber and
other biomaterials, and are
designed for easy connection
and installation.
“Working with Natural Building
Systems was brilliant: we gave
them our model and used their
software to understand how we
could tweak it a little to snap it
as closely as possible to NBS’
cassettes,” Al relates. “It was
seamless: NBS came back with
a fully designed structurally
integral insulated shell and core,
and the client – the school –
was very happy with it.”
IF_DO had been working
with Natural Building Systems
on a few other projects –
including the home of David
Nicholson, Natural Building
Systems' Technical Director.
They were interested in the
ADEPT system and were keen
to use it in a project of their
own, as proof of concept for
the practice: evidence that a
kit-of-parts, pre-manufactured
system designed for circularity,
using entirely natural materials,
could work e昀케ciently.
David had 昀椀rst contacted
them having been impressed
by IF_DO’s work on The Hithe,
a demountable commercial
building for local startups
in London’s Borough area –
designed, of necessity, to be
disassembled after a lease of
ten years. In many ways, the
ADEPT system is a ready-made
solution to the challenges IF_
DO had to solve from scratch
when designing The Hithe.
“For The Hithe, we put a lot
of R&D into investigating how
we could tweak six panels to
make them structurally robust
but easy enough to take
apart and put back together
without breaking,” Al recalls.
“If we had been aware of
David’s system at the time,
it would have been perfect.
It has great sustainability
bene昀椀ts and internal air
quality, making it very
well suited to a classroom
environment.”
Design and delivery
↓
An integrated
storage bench
provides a place
to hang out
DESIGNING TIMBER
19
NOV/DEC 2025
“We managed to deliver
a very slightly bigger net
internal area than the
previous design,” Al tells us.
“It’s a simple structure with
some nice features, such
as the large picture window
overlooking a horse chestnut
tree, and the integrated
storage bench which links it
to the playground site. We
incorporated some additional
social and practical bene昀椀ts
INSPIRATION
Perfectly ADEPTed to
the project
