A new circular construction facility in east London is championing the reuse of large-scale materials and changing the industry’s traditional material supply chain.
Tipping Point East, based on a 7,000 sq m site in Newham, is the UK’s first large-scale circular construction facility. It opened in the spring and a similar facility is now planned in west London.
The facility combines a store for reclaimed materials, as well as spaces for training and wider cultural activities. It includes office space designed and built by the three organisations jointly running the site: Resolve Collective, Yes Make and Material Cultures.
The founding bodies will operate on the site, owned by the London mayor, for the next five years and plan to divert at least 15,000 tonnes of materials from landfill.
On a tour of the site last week, Selin Öktem from Yes Make said they were working closely with demolition contractors to secure materials from London sites.
Recent examples of reused materials include two-storey-high concrete panels from a skyscraper and 600 units of mahogany wood from Smithfield. Öktem said that given the age of the wood, it was more durable and preferable to procure compared with new stock.
Materials are refurbished onsite and either used for temporary facilities such as exhibitions or film sets, or on large refurbishment schemes and also in other sectors such as farming.
Öktem said the founding organisations are also championing material-orientated design, an approach where architects design based on the materials they have at hand rather than from a blank page.
Yes Make is also developing software that would add codes to materials to assign them to projects, price them and establish the carbon footprint and savings from reusing the material.
Recycling exhibition materials
Part of the facility also receives materials and furniture from leading arts organisations in London, such as the Wellcome Trust. This is run by the Resolve Collective, which works with 30 arts organisations, taking unwanted materials that were used in exhibitions. The group will launch a membership scheme next month for the public to gain access to materials from the facility.
Tipping Point East is already feeding into national government strategy around the circular economy. In February 2026, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) published its circular economy guidance for mayoral authorities, and praised Tipping Point East’s capacity to “support London’s ambitious sustainability agenda through careful deconstruction and salvage of building materials for reuse into socially impactful new projects”.
