{"id":775484,"date":"2025-02-27T07:52:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T07:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?p=775484"},"modified":"2025-03-03T15:58:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:58:42","slug":"shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe","title":{"rendered":"Shahed Saleem completes timber and faience-faced Docklands caf\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new building, which consists of a glazed, light-filled seating area, kitchen and public toilets, replaces a previous smaller brick caf\u00e9 building on the site dating from the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

To achieve this lightness of the glazed fa\u00e7ade, a timber structure for the roof frame, designed by structural engineers Corbett & Tasker, spreads the load across a series of slender timber columns.<\/p>\n

Commissioned by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, the caf\u00e9 sits in Island Gardens, a park on the southern-most tip of the Isle of Dogs that was originally opened to the public in 1895 by the London County Council, providing green space for the local dock, warehouse and factory workers.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The nearby Grade II-listed Greenwich foot tunnel was opened in 1902, connecting Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs together and the park has a spectacular view of Sir Christopher Wren\u2019s Old Royal College and Inigo Jones\u2019 Queen\u2019s House, which has seen it designated as part of the buffer zone to the Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site, an urban ensemble which symbolises Britain\u2019s naval power and colonial expansion during the British Empire.<\/p>\n

This history is referenced in security screens patterned with motifs connected to shipping and shipbuilding sourced from the collection of the London Museum, while bespoke glazed faience tiles on the fa\u00e7ade reference local 19th century architecture.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Architect\u2019s view<\/h3>\n

Island Gardens is located in the heart of Britain\u2019s maritime and colonial history, so it\u2019s a weighty and exciting challenge to design a building that responds to this heritage. The caf\u00e9 attempts this by opening itself up with views across the park, the famous vista of the Naval College, the foot tunnel entrance and the Cutty Sark. So from the building you can be very aware of your place within this historic landscape.
\nShahed Saleem, founder and director, Makespace<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Engineer’s view<\/h3>\n

At Island Gardens, the structure is all on show and slender columns frame out the caf\u00e9 space and are integrated into the glazed fa\u00e7ade. In order to create equally slender columns all around the caf\u00e9, a reciprocal timber roof structure has been designed, whereby short length timber beams interlock together to form a larger span roof made from equally sized elements. Beam intersections are mutually supporting and are simple shear-only connections.<\/p>\n

In a reference to the 19th<\/sup> century architectural heritage of the site when the dockland areas were being extensively developed, bespoke glazed terracotta tiles (faience) by Darwen Terracotta form a fascia running around the top of the building, set within a timber frame to visually tie the building together.<\/p>\n

Security screens which are pulled across the glazing at night are patterned with motifs which are outlines of historic objects connected to shipping and shipbuilding in the Docklands, and have all been sourced from the collection of the London Museum.
\nPeter Corbett, co-founder, Corbett & Tasker – now part of Whitby Wood<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Project data<\/h3>\n

Location<\/strong> Island Gardens, Isle of Dogs, Tower Hamlets, London E14 3PS
\nStart on site<\/strong> March 2023
\nCompletion date<\/strong> October 2023 (building), April 2024 (landscape and park works)
\nGross internal floor area<\/strong> 79m2<\/sup>
\nForm of contract or procurement route<\/strong> JCT Traditional
\nConstruction cost<\/strong> Undisclosed
\nArchitect<\/strong> Shahed Saleem
\nClient<\/strong> London Borough of Tower Hamlets
\nStructural engineer<\/strong> Corbett & Tasker – part of Whitby Wood<\/span>
\nM&E consultant<\/strong> Mesh
\nLandscape consultant<\/strong> Davis Landscape Architecture
\nProject manager<\/strong> Edward Ihijirika, DBUK
\nCDM co-ordinator<\/strong> Arcus Consulting
\nApproved building inspector<\/strong> London Borough of Tower Hamlets
\nMain contractor<\/strong> Ark Build
\nCAD software used<\/strong> Vectorworks<\/p>\n

Environmental performance data<\/h3>\n

Percentage of floor area with daylight factor >2%<\/strong> Not modelled
\nPercentage of floor area with daylight factor >5%<\/strong> Not modelled
\nOn-site energy generation<\/strong> Nil
\nAnnual mains water consumption<\/strong> Not calculated
\nAirtightness at 50Pa<\/strong> 4.1 m3<\/sup>\/h.m2<\/sup>
\nHeating and hot water load<\/strong> 68.16 kWh\/m2<\/sup>\/yr (predicted)
\nOperational energy<\/strong> Not calculated
\nTotal energy load<\/strong> 124.27 kWh\/m2<\/sup>\/yr (predicted)
\nOverall area-weighted U-value<\/strong> 0.45 W\/m2<\/sup>K (estimated)
\nPredicted design life<\/strong> Not supplied
\nEmbodied carbon<\/strong> Not calculated
\nWhole-life carbon <\/strong>Not calculated
\nAnnual CO2<\/sub> emissions\u00a0<\/strong>17.8 kgCO2<\/sub>eq\/m2 <\/sup>predicted
\nEnergy performance certificate rating<\/strong> 7 (Band A)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new building, which consists of a glazed, light-filled seating area, kitchen and public toilets, replaces a previous smaller brick caf\u00e9 building on the site dating from the 1980s. \u00a0 To achieve this lightness of the glazed fa\u00e7ade, a timber structure for the roof frame, designed by structural engineers Corbett & Tasker, spreads the load …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32845,"featured_media":775560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[706],"tags":[3365,1176,101515],"yoast_head":"\nShahed Saleem completes timber and faience-faced Docklands caf\u00e9<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shahed Saleem has created a new caf\u00e9 on the Isle of Dogs incorporating motifs and materials that draw on the East End\u2019s maritime history\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shahed Saleem completes timber and faience-faced Docklands caf\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shahed Saleem has created a new caf\u00e9 on the Isle of Dogs incorporating motifs and materials that draw on the East End\u2019s maritime history\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Architects\u2019 Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-27T07:52:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-03T15:58:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/02\/18191730\/DSCF6567crop-1024x683.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rob Wilson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rob Wilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe\",\"name\":\"Shahed Saleem completes timber and faience-faced Docklands caf\u00e9\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-27T07:52:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-03T15:58:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/12806917e77ff2de74f79bac098aac26\"},\"description\":\"Shahed Saleem has created a new caf\u00e9 on the Isle of Dogs incorporating motifs and materials that draw on the East End\u2019s maritime history\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Shahed Saleem completes timber and faience-faced Docklands caf\u00e9\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Architects\u2019 Journal\",\"description\":\"Architecture News & Buildings\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/12806917e77ff2de74f79bac098aac26\",\"name\":\"Rob Wilson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/ed60d01e238ce7e0d3e0737fc651d917\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/48d9a751a55d1fed69daf73efdcee3c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/48d9a751a55d1fed69daf73efdcee3c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rob Wilson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/author\/rob-wilson-2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Shahed Saleem completes timber and faience-faced Docklands caf\u00e9","description":"Shahed Saleem has created a new caf\u00e9 on the Isle of Dogs incorporating motifs and materials that draw on the East End\u2019s maritime history","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Shahed Saleem completes timber and faience-faced Docklands caf\u00e9","og_description":"Shahed Saleem has created a new caf\u00e9 on the Isle of Dogs incorporating motifs and materials that draw on the East End\u2019s maritime history","og_url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe","og_site_name":"The Architects\u2019 Journal","article_published_time":"2025-02-27T07:52:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-03T15:58:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/02\/18191730\/DSCF6567crop-1024x683.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Rob Wilson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rob Wilson","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe","url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe","name":"Shahed Saleem completes timber and faience-faced Docklands caf\u00e9","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-02-27T07:52:52+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-03T15:58:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/12806917e77ff2de74f79bac098aac26"},"description":"Shahed Saleem has created a new caf\u00e9 on the Isle of Dogs incorporating motifs and materials that draw on the East End\u2019s maritime history","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/buildings\/shahed-saleem-completes-timber-and-faience-faced-docklands-cafe#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Shahed Saleem completes timber and faience-faced Docklands caf\u00e9"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/","name":"The Architects\u2019 Journal","description":"Architecture News & Buildings","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/12806917e77ff2de74f79bac098aac26","name":"Rob Wilson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/ed60d01e238ce7e0d3e0737fc651d917","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/48d9a751a55d1fed69daf73efdcee3c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/48d9a751a55d1fed69daf73efdcee3c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rob Wilson"},"url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/author\/rob-wilson-2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775484"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777172,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775484\/revisions\/777172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}