Archive for category: Building News

Kerkstoel 2000+ is one of the most innovative concrete companies in Europe.

It is part of the Kerkstoel Group and is based in Grobbendonk (Belgium).It specializes in the production of precast concrete walls and floors. Every precast element is made to measure in a highly automated factory.

Based on the architect’s design (general arrangements and cross-sections), structural calculations, formwork and installation plans, Kerkstoel 2000+ develops an installation plan, with all the necessary details, so that everything runs smoothly and according to plan on site.

The floors, or lattice slabs, are used as a structural and aesthetic underside of a concrete floor. Basically permanent formwork they are the ideal substrate for concrete floors and can be made in all shapes, up to 7 cm thick. Wide plates are equipped with bottom reinforcement and on the underside they have a very smooth surface. After placing the lattice slabs and propping the top reinforcement is installed. Finally, the slabs are poured with concrete to the desired floor thickness. The result: a solid concrete floor where the load is perfectly distributed.

 

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The reinforced twin walls of Kerkstoel consist of two shells of reinforced concrete that are connected to each other by lattice girders. All necessary built-in parts are provided in the walls during production (such as electrical boxes, power conduits, openings for windows and doors, wooden boxes, etc.).The wall elements are then assembled on site according to plan and then filled with concrete. The result is a solid construction as strong as a monolithic cast insitu concrete wall. These systems ensure high quality on site in a shorter construction time. The heavy skilled labour, such as steel-fixing and formwork, is limited to an absolute minimum.

Thanks to the hybrid character, namely the combination between prefab concrete and in situ concrete, with the necessary water-bars the walls can also be used for underground structures.

In 2018 Kerkstoel 2000+ invested in a brand new automated production hall. With this production hall, Kerkstoel wants to further specialize in the concrete wall sector. Concrete walls with integrated insulation, sandwich panels, walls with prints, etc. will now also be possible. Kerkstoel 2000+ has been active on the British market for more than 10 years, and has delivered walls and floor slabs to numerous contractors. Contact us and see what we can do for you!

www.kerkstoel.be/en

As a proud Midlander and Editor of MMC Magazine, my interest was always going to be piqued when I heard that industry leader Creagh are building an offsite residential tower called ‘St Martin’s Place’ in the heart of my local city, Birmingham. I had to find out more:

There is a habit amongst people from Birmingham and the surrounding towns to run the place down. But I believe this habit is a bad one and that places such as Birmingham have so much to offer, logistically and culturally.

There was a feeling across the Midlands that Birmingham was on the cusp of big change when it finally received a decent train station. Grand Central came and transformed our embarrassing old New Street station into somewhere worth visiting.

It seems that despite nationwide Brexit uncertainty, businesses in Birmingham are enjoying more success than those in any other part of Britain.

 

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In the Birmingham Mail, Neil Rami, chief executive of West Midlands Growth Company, recently said “The unprecedented rise of new enterprises here is demonstrating how the region can outclass London as a central hub of innovation, productive and long term future prospects.”

In fact, Birmingham was the second-fastest growing UK city last year; and with more Londoners moving out of the capital to Birmingham than ever before, the demand for new housing has never been higher. Earlier this year, Berkeley Homes said they could be building up to 3,000 new homes a year in the city over the next ten years.

City centre living is becoming more and more popular, and in Birmingham this is being boosted by the increase in exciting career options being offered with the expansion of business in the city. With St Martin’s Place set to complete by the end of 2020, residents won’t just be the envy of Birmingham – there will be many more vying for their luxury lifestyle in this exciting city destination.

The project

Work has already begun on St Martins Place, a 17 storey, premium development, located in the heart of Birmingham between Broad Street and Tennant Street. The building comprises five apartments with three bedrooms, 105 apartments with two bedrooms and 118 apartments with one bedroom.

St Martin’s Place will feature 228 spacious apartments, and residents’ amenities including a private gym, cinema, Wi-Fi, café and 24-hour concierge.

Colmore Tang Construction has been appointed by developer Seven Capital as main contractor for the delivery of the project, located in one of Birmingham’s most highly sought-after postcodes, just minutes from the city’s main business district. Creagh have been enlisted to manufacture, supply & fit fastrack build system Rapidres, consisting of external sandwich panels (featuring both a smooth finish and a brick finish), internal walls, stairs, lift shaft and hollowcore flooring.

CEO of Creagh, Seamus McKeague says “we are already seeing strong interest in rapid build concrete systems because developers now understand the true value of slashing programme times. Investors not only benefit from revenue gained by the early occupation of units but, also, from the mobility of their capital resource. Quite simply, shorter build times mean developers can complete more projects with the same pot of finance.”

About Rapidres

Rapidres is a fastrack offsite crosswall build system developed for residential projects, including apartments, student accommodation, hotels, social housing and custodial accommodation.

Rapidres crosswall technology delivers robust traditional style construction with the speed of a modular build for significant programme savings. Creagh design, manufacture and install the complete structure.

The total frame solution is comprised of structural walls and solid or hollowcore flooring and construction speed is greater than alternative systems. Units are manufactured offsite ensuring the desired quality is met and can be left for direct decoration if required. M&E can be incorporated into the production process for all types of services.

In summary

City living offers a multitude of benefits, such as more job opportunities, more chances of meeting people, more education opportunities and more variety.

Birmingham needs more homes if it is to keep up with modern demand, and we know that we need to be utilising offsite more as an industry. In my eyes, a project such as St Martin’s place is the right type of building, in the right place, at the right time, being delivered by the right people. I can’t wait to see it done!

www.creaghconcrete.co.uk

As Bison Precast celebrates 100 years in business, we reflect on its remarkable history and ability to remain at the forefront of building innovation.

 

Bison Precast is a business built on sturdy foundations. Originally named Concrete Ltd, it was established in 1919 by JG Ambrose and CB Mathews, two Royal Engineers who had developed expertise in concrete while creating pillboxes used on the Western Front in the Great War of 1914-1918. The business’s success throughout the last century, in an often-challenging market, can be attributed to those two men and their principles of professionalism and responsiveness to the industry’s requirements.

A century of innovation

When they opened their first factory in 1919, in Leeds, concrete’s popularity as a building material was growing. Initially, the factory specialised in the manufacture of precast reinforced concrete floors and, despite the challenges of the post-war years, they were soon able to open factories in the south and the north, to meet growing demand across the country for their products.

During the 1930s, the company continued to develop new products. In 1935 it invented the pneumatic core, which revolutionised the manufacture of hollow concrete floors. It also developed the L-section unit for theatre balconies, a refined version of which continues to be used in grandstand terracing and seating.

During World War II, the company created a mobile version of the pillbox – the extemporised armoured vehicle known as the Bison, and to which the company would later change its name. In the post-war years, the company played a significant role in the rebuilding of Britain’s war-damaged factories, hospitals and government buildings, where its precast floors and the speed at which they could be assembled proved invaluable.

A lack of structural steel during this period led the company to develop pre-stressing techniques and by the early 1950s the Bison Preferred Dimension Frame was introduced for use in factories, hospitals and office buildings where large areas of floorspace were required. The following decade, the company’s Wall Frame System, which was the first fully industrialised all-British system for high-rise blocks of flats, helped to meet the country’s growing housing demand, and received the Queen’s Award to Industry in 1967.

Into the 1970s and the Bison Beam was developed, in 1974, in response to changing market needs and new mandatory requirements for ground floors. The beam’s immediate success resulted in it becoming the generic term for suspended ground floors in housing, and led directly to the use of hollowcore pre-stressed beams for intermediate floors in single-occupancy dwellings. It also saw Bison truly established as one of the leading lights in British construction.

 

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Building the nation’s landmarks

As the Bison product range has developed over the course of the century, so too has the range of sectors it serves. Today, it provides concrete flooring, structural and architectural products for use in the construction of large infrastructure projects, car parks, healthcare, custodial, leisure, stadia, industrial, residential and commercial schemes – helping to create some of Britain’s most prominent landmarks.

In 1998, Bison started the manufacture and supply of 1000m³ of terraces, walls, beams and stairs, and 45,000m² of hollowcore flooring for use in the building of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, ensuring it would be ready for the Rugby World Cup in 1999. Just a handful of years later in 2003, it began the casting of more than 90,000m² of hollowcore flooring, and over 13,000m³ of precast concrete to form 55 kilometres of terracing, ancillary steps, walls and stair flights at the new 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium.

Other landmarks that have been supported by the significant design, manufacture and supply capability of Bison Precast, but which we might take a little more for granted, include the mighty new Catthorpe Interchange in Leicestershire – where the M1 meets the M6 and the A14 trunk road – for which 7,000m² of Bison Precast’s Omnia Bridge Deck concrete units were provided; Ilkeston Railway with its 100-metre-long platforms, made up in total by 230 precast concrete units weighing a combined 700 tonnes, which is expected to serve up to a quarter of a million passengers a year; and the Dawlish sea defences which were rebuilt with nearly 100 three-metre-high heavy-duty bespoke precast concrete retaining walls, and more than 150 precast seawall units, each weighing around 15 tonnes, as part of urgent works to get Dawlish railway back on track after the existing defences and part of the railway line were destroyed in the heavy storms of 2014.

This is in addition to numerous apartment buildings, hospitals and other significant structures that are helping to regenerate, transform and serve communities up and down the UK.

Combining strength

In 2017, Bison was acquired by leading building products manufacturer Forterra, which already had two precast concrete production sites in Somercotes and Hoveringham, neither of them far from Bison’s base in Swadlincote, Derbyshire.

Operating under the new name of Bison Precast, the move would create strength through the combined expertise, skill and experience of the two businesses, making it one of the biggest precast concrete manufacturers in the country, and the largest manufacturer of precast flooring.

This impressive Bison Precast team is continuing the innovative approach of its predecessors in developing pioneering techniques that are at the forefront of offsite construction. Its precast frame solutions are reducing build times, improving health and safety, and helping alleviate issues of labour availability.

Bison Precast is also taking full advantage of its access to Forterra’s clay brick expertise, working with its counterparts to break new ground in the world of precast architectural solutions, the latest of which is being used in the construction of Kier’s new Wellingborough Prison scheme.

New brick-faced sandwich panels for Wellingborough Prison scheme

Bison Precast’s new, insulated, brick-faced sandwich panels are a great example of what can be achieved when precast concrete expertise is combined with clay brick manufacturing know-how.

The Wellingborough Prison project is one of the first to benefit from these new panels, which are part of Bison Precast’s ever-expanding Architectural Precast range.

Mike Nelson, commercial director at Bison Precast, commented: “In pairing innovative design with high tech manufacturing capabilities, our new insulated, brick-faced sandwich panels are supporting the move to DfMA, which is so important in the successful and timely completion of schemes such as Wellingborough Prison.

“Our new brick-faced sandwich panels enable us to take any clay brick option from the Forterra range and cast it into precast concrete panels. For Wellingborough Prison, Forterra’s Butterley Golden Thatch is the clay brick used, and will provide an attractive external façade to the key public-facing building on site. This technique means that design and aesthetics of DfMA schemes – such as multi-storey residential, commercial, institutional and industrial developments – needn’t be limited, which is a real step forward in delivering high quality schemes, quickly.”

Building for the future

Mike has little doubt that key to Bison Precast’s continuing success is its skilled and loyal workforce, many of whom have worked for the business all their working lives. “Any business is only as good as its people. Over the years, I have witnessed a deep sense of loyalty and identity within the Bison workforce, and the number of employees who have received long service awards is testament to this. It’s an attitude and work ethic that began with our founders back in 1919 and their commitment to serving not only the construction industry but the country, too.”

As well as continuing to deliver the pioneering products and methods honed over the last century, Bison Precast is looking to continue to develop new products and opportunities, particularly in the area of offsite manufacture, that should see the company thrive long into the future.

Creagh, one of the UK’s largest producers of concrete products for a range of market sectors are changing the way people think about concrete, bringing new levels of efficiency and performance to their products. This can be seen in one of their latest projects, Circle Square. MMC Editor Joe Bradbury discusses:

 

Work is well underway on a new multi-storey car park and hotel at Circle Square in Manchester city centre.

Carparks: a brief introduction

Originally, architecture was never delivered with car parking in mind. However, as cars became accessible for everybody, the popularity of cars rose exponentially. This has dominated design ever since, with the built environment having to morph and evolve around an infrastructure of roads, motorways, garages, car parks and multi storey’s.

Over the years, attitudes towards car parks (especially multi storey) have been in a constant state of flux. People often debate the heritage value of the post-war multi-storey car park, typically constructed out of concrete in a brutalist style. Some believe that these car parks are a blot on our horizons, whilst others campaign to get them listed status in order to protect their architectural value. The Tricorn in Portsmouth is one such example of where demolishment causes controversy, due not only to its aesthetics but also its cultural value; it famously featured in the 1971 film ‘Get Carter.’

Wider adoption of modern methods of construction, such as offsite, are now serving to revolutionise the humble car park even further, making it fit for modern demand.

 

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Why offsite?

Offsite construction provides specifiers with programme certainty and quality though simplification of site operations and reduced weather dependencies due to the controlled factory-based assembly process. Buildings delivered through offsite construction offer enhanced specification standards and build quality which reduces occupancy costs related to energy use, defects and repairs. There is significant evidence that suggests that the use of offsite construction has been successful when applied to meet the needs of significant developments at scale with consequential opportunities for standardisation of design details – particularly to meet the need of government led programmes.

‘The Waste and Resources Action Programme’ posit that offsite construction practices generate up to 90% less waste than more traditional building methods. This is because a factory is a much more controlled environment than a traditional building site – throwing far fewer variables into the mix.

Offsite and modular construction is much less energy intensive than traditional building methods. The carbon footprint left by the many construction vehicles and machinery on the site of a traditional construction project alone is considerably larger than that of modular construction. Fewer vehicles involved and less time spent on site results in fewer emissions and a vastly reduced carbon footprint as an industry.

About Circle Square

Russells Construction has been appointed by developer Bruntwood as main contractor for the delivery of the project. Creagh have been enlisted to manufacture, supply & fit stair cores, hollowcore flooring and bespoke inset brick panels.

The first ten floors of the 16 storey hybrid building, will encompass a 1,014 space car park, with a 158 bed hotel located on top of the car park.

The aerial images show the size of the site, with the concrete cores, supplied by Creagh and steelwork structure showing the scale of the large development underway.

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios served as concept architect for the car park and hotel, with the design reflecting the city’s industrial past. Inspired by the nearby 19th century warehouses, the building will be constructed from a pre-cast concrete panel system, utilising inset bricks (supplied by Creagh) which draw on Manchester’s rich links to the grand infrastructure of the Victorian era.

Located on the former BBC site on Oxford Road, Circle Square is a joint venture between Bruntwood SciTech and Select Property Group that will see the creation of a pioneering new urban destination that will boast over 1700 new homes, 1.2 million sq. ft. of workspace and over 100,000 sq. ft. of retail and leisure space. Circle Square will also feature the first and largest new city park for generations, providing much needed green space in the city.

In summary

Offsite offers fast and affordable solution to meet modern demand, and with the UK Environment Agency and other government bodies putting increasing pressure on construction companies to reduce pollution and conform to environmental regulations, it is a shift in practice that happens regardless of anybody’s stance on the subject. Companies such as Creagh are at the forefront of this great change.

www.creaghconcrete.co.uk

 

A project to create a high quality meeting room and classroom within the new Upper School of the prestigious École Jeannine Manuel School in London has been completed using the complete fire resistant, timber frame glazing system Promat SYSTEMGLAS^® Ligna.

The school, which is a co-educational, French bilingual, international school for 3-18 year olds, was established in 2015. Its new Upper School occupies a Georgian building facing onto Russell Square so any development work within the school has to carefully balance the preservation of period architecture with the provision of high quality facilities.

The latest project has created a meeting room and split an existing room in order to create a corridor and new classroom. By utilising the SYSTEMGLAS^® Ligna butt-jointed glazed partitioning system, in combination with timber doorsets, the right aesthetic and performance balance could be achieved, in combination with assured EI30 fire protection and 39db acoustic insulation to help reduce unwanted noise disturbance.

Highly experienced main contractor ME Construction was tasked with sourcing a solution. Founded in 2007, ME Construction is a leading specialist in refurbishment and selected new build projects, who endorse a ‘One Team, One Focus’ by working collaboratively with clients, consultants and the supply chain.

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It was important for the client that 30 minutes fire safety could be assured with no ambiguity, and that the design of the glazed partitions complemented the existing décor. This included the creation of a glazed screen with an integral door spanning 3.8m. As a specialist in projects for the education sector, ME Construction was ideally positioned to source the right solution.

In conjunction with Promat SYSTEMGLAS^® approved installer PGS Glass, a partition and doorset was developed using the SYSTEMGLAS^® Ligna fire resistant glazing system. Designed by Promat UK, a global leader in passive fire protection products, Ligna is one of a family of products which have been tested (CERTIFIRE CF5452) to provide integrity and insulation (EI) fire protection from 30 minutes up to 60 minutes (EI30 to EI60).

SYSTEMGLAS^® Ligna’s exact configuration of fire rated glass and components, including beading and setting blocks is manufactured in house and is provided to installers who are fully supported by Promat UK throughout the installation stage. This ensures the timber frame is created to the correct specification and delivers the finished glazing’s promised fire protection level.

With Promat UK being in a unique position to offer fully transparent traceability on all the products used to create the partitions, as well as supporting PGS Glass throughout installation, it is able to provide a 360° ‘Wheel of Assurance’ to clients. This includes a certificate of conformity for installation, confirming that the glazing system has been installed correctly with no weaknesses in its ability to provide passive fire protection for the required timeframe.

For Kent-based PGS Glass, the École Jeannine Manuel School office development was the ideal project to utilise its fire rated glass experience and expertise to add value to a client project. The company works with clients across the South East to provide glass and glazing for all kinds of commercial and domestic projects, with one its core strengths being fire protection.

Paul Groves, Contracts Manager at PGS Glass said: “We’re really pleased with the result that SYSTEMGLAS^® Ligna has enabled us to achieve at the École Jeannine Manuel School. Working closely with ME Construction and Promat’s technical team from the outset, we have been able to create modern offices with maximum light transmission, whilst offering a fire protection assurance that provides total peace of mind for the client.”

The timber frame Ligna is one of four systems within the Promat SYSTEMGLAS^® range which are backed with the 360° Wheel of Assurance for fire protection. SYSTEMGLAS^® Ferro enables the creation of partitioning using a steel frame, whilst Advenerat and Celare utilise the PROMATECT^® H fire resistant material to create the framing, which can be painted, overclad or concealed within surrounding walls, floors and ceilings to provide a virtually ‘frameless’ effect.

Part of international product manufacturing group the Etex Group, Promat UK has been producing fire, thermal and acoustic protection solutions for more than 30 years. In addition to its range of fire resistant glass, the company manufactures market leading high performance insulation solutions which are used in numerous hi-tech, engineering and industrial sectors.

 

Find out more at www.promat-glass.co.uk