WORK WITH US
Bring us a waste. Make something with us.
Taipa Lab is an early-stage open-research practice in Park Royal, west London. There are a few ways to work with us. If your site produces a waste we could test, we want to hear about it. If you want a piece made from your site's own material, we can take a small number of commissions. If you want to make or research with us, we are open to it. Everything we do is tested in the open, and the results are published so others can read them, repeat them, and add to them.
FOR DEVELOPERS AND LANDOWNERS
If your site produces waste we could test.
When a London site is excavated, the clay that comes out is usually treated as something to clear. It is dug, classified, loaded, and trucked away, and even clean subsoil that goes to landfill sits at the lower inert tax rate or can be reused under the existing rules rather than buried. We research whether specific local waste streams, starting with excavated London clay, can become ceramics or building material. This is research, not a disposal service. We are not offering to take a spoil heap or to be a route off site. We take small, documented quantities, and we publish what we find.
Proximity is part of the point. Park Royal is one of the largest industrial estates in Europe, with thousands of businesses within walking distance of the studio. Clay dug in west London can be tested and reused close to where it came from, rather than carried to landfill.
How the rules fit, in plain terms.
The barrier is rarely the clay. It is the paperwork and the uncertainty around handing material to someone else. We understand the framework you already work within, so this stays low-risk and low-effort for you.
- Waste, and the route the industry actually uses
- Excavated clay surplus to a site is waste by default, once the holder intends to discard it. There is a by-product test in the Waste Framework Directive, but it sits awkwardly against excavation spoil, so the development industry does not usually rely on it for soils. The recognised route is the CL:AIRE Definition of Waste: Development Industry Code of Practice. We lead with that, because it is the one you know.
- The DoWCoP, and where it stops
- The DoWCoP is the Environment-Agency-recognised way for the development industry to show, site by site, that excavated material can be reused without being classified as waste. It has kept large volumes of material out of landfill since 2012. Read it honestly though: it is written for reuse in development and engineering on a site, not for handing clay to a material lab. So we understand the framework and where your plan fits, but we do not claim that giving clay to the studio is automatically a DoWCoP non-waste transfer.
- The MMP and the Qualified Person are yours, not ours
- Where the DoWCoP is used, a Materials Management Plan documents how excavated material is handled, and a CL:AIRE-registered Qualified Person reviews it and signs a declaration to the Environment Agency. Your own environmental consultant already does this. We do not write the MMP or act as the Qualified Person. We slot in as a documented destination.
- Clean clay only, using data you already hold
- As the waste producer, you classify the material before it moves, under your duty of care and the WM3 methodology, by composition. We take clean, uncontaminated, naturally occurring clay only. We do not ask you to test anything new. We just need a copy of the Phase 2 chemical data you already hold for that stratum.
- Where this lands in your project
- Most projects run a Phase 1 desk study, then a Phase 2 intrusive site investigation with chemical lab analysis, then a remediation strategy if one is needed, then MMP sign-off before reuse, then excavation. By the time you are excavating, you almost always already hold the Phase 2 data that tells everyone whether the clay is clean.
- Who decides
- You, as the waste producer, classify the material and are legally responsible for it. The Qualified Person declares the non-waste route where the DoWCoP is used. The Environment Agency is the regulator and the body to ask in genuine doubt.
What to send.
A short email is enough to start. The more of this you can include, the faster we can tell you whether it is something we can test.
- Material type
- Approximate volume
- Site location
- Rough timeline
A few honest things to set expectations:
- We take small research quantities, not bulk volume.
- No payment is implied, in either direction.
- We cannot guarantee a route off your site.
- Clean, uncontaminated, naturally occurring clay only.
This is general information, not legal or regulatory advice. The developer remains the waste producer and the duty-of-care holder for their material, and should take advice from their own environmental consultant, a CL:AIRE Qualified Person, or the Environment Agency before classifying or moving any material. Taipa Lab is an early-stage open-research practice. It is not a waste regulator, a consultancy, or a permitted waste facility.
Where this is going, plainly: see the Park Royal Clay project and the firing findings from clay dug on a local construction site.
Opens an email with the fields to include.
COMMISSIONED OBJECTS
Make something for the building from the building.
When a site is excavated, the material that comes out is usually trucked away. We can take a small, documented quantity of it and research what it could become, then work with you to develop a designed piece from it. The piece is made in the studio and installed in the finished building, so it is made from the ground it stands on. The research behind it is published openly, like everything else we do.
Today this means ceramics. We make objects from London clay already, and the cups are the simplest proof that this clay can become a finished, durable thing. A commission points that same work at one site and one building. We are early, and honest about it. We have done the material research and the ceramics. We have not yet delivered a portfolio of commissions, and we take a small number at a time.
It is one loop, run once for one place.
- Material from the site. A small, documented quantity of clay or other waste, on the same clean-material terms set out above.
- Research. We test what it can do and write down what we find. Some materials will not make a finished object, and we say so.
- Design, together. We develop a piece with you, and where it fits, with the people who will use the building, through a public workshop.
- Made. The piece is made in the studio. Ceramics now, with the intention of other materials and unfired pieces over time.
- Installed, and published. The piece goes into the building the material came from, and the research behind it is shared openly.
Why it earns its place.
A piece like this does more than sit on a shelf.
- It gives the building a true, local origin story. Placemaking that is specific to this site, not borrowed.
- It is a clear line of social value and community engagement, made with local people, that fits within commitments you already hold.
- It keeps the site's own material in the building instead of in a landfill, which is part of the embodied-carbon and reuse story.
- It is documented openly, so the work stands up to scrutiny.
Where it fits, we can run a public workshop so the people who will use the building help shape and make the piece. It carries their hands, not only ours. This is optional and depends on the project and our capacity at the time.
A few honest things, as always:
- This is early. Ceramics is the output we have developed. Other materials are still in research.
- We take a small number of commissions at a time, and lead times are long.
- We make objects and pieces, not building-scale structure or fabric.
- We document carefully. We do not certify carbon savings or material performance.
Where this comes from, plainly: see the Park Royal Clay project and its firing findings, the worked Ceramic Loop, and what we have made so far.
Opens an email with the details to include. Or follow the research to see what we publish as it develops.
That is the work with a site behind it. The other half is the studio itself.
FOR DESIGNERS AND MAKERS
If you want to make or research with us.
The intention is for Taipa Lab to be a place for prototyping and design, not only for material tests. We plan to open the studio to collaborations, residencies, joint material research, and students. That side is early, and we are describing intent rather than a programme that is already running.
If you are a designer, architect, maker, or researcher who wants to work with waste-derived materials, or to build on the open recipes and data we publish, tell us what you have in mind.
To see what the research has produced so far, look at what we have made.
Or follow the research to see what we publish as it develops.