The sustainable house
Stewart Milne Group is to use its timber frame technology to build a demonstration house that meets level 5 under the new Code for Sustainable Homes. The house will be built at the BRE Innovation Park and will be launched at the Offsite2007 event there in June. BRE is independently assessing the house’s sustainability.
The design of the house is taking into account environmental best practice. Among the features being considered are solar thermal heating, photovoltaic panels and wind turbines to provide renewable energy. Energy-saving features include high levels of insulation with the external envelope of the house planned to have a U value of 0.17. Grey water recycling and water-saving devices are being considered to conserve water. Waste will be minimised through the construction process by the use of the offsite timber technology. The house will also have open plan and flexible interior spaces, with no internal load-bearing walls.
Closed panel timber frame will be used with factory fitted windows, and roof cassettes. The building fabric is expected to gain a maximum score under the code assessment.
Stewart Milne plans to invest a further £2m at its manufacturing base at Witney in Oxfordshire, to finance a 300-unit a year closed panel production line. The production line is being established specifically to address the government drive towards greater use of modern methods of construction. The closed panel product has 140mm stud with insulation, windows and doors and a service zone void incorporated.
• Stewart Milne
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 80
Walling systems
Natural Building Technologies offers ecological solutions for the building envelope, including the Thermoplan, Diffutherm and Pavaclad walling systems. Thermoplan is a thin-bed insulated structural solid wall system with render finish, while Diffutherm is for light steel buildings and uses Pavatex woodfibre boards over the outside of the frame with a render finish. Pavaclad Timber and Pavaclad Steel both use woodfibre insulation fixed externally over timber or steel frames. They can be finished by rendering directly onto the woodfibre cladding or may be clad with finishes such as brick or timber.
• Natural Building Technologies
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 81
Solar shading
Brunelcare’s Colliers Gardens very sheltered housing scheme in Bristol has been equipped with Levolux solar shading. The housing scheme comprises 50 flats in five interconnecting blocks, and was designed by architect Penoyre and Prasad, which specified a timber brise soleil. Working with the architect, Levolux developed a series of 200mm wide, 2.5m long and 40mm thick machined western red cedar blades to span the length of the exterior glazing. The brise soleil were fixed onto a series of stainless steel brackets chemically anchored into nine glulam posts.
• Levolux
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 82
Comar’s curtain walling
Comar Architectural Aluminium Systems has launched the Comar 6EFT curtain walling suite to meet demand for sheer high rise, sloped and inclined facades. The system includes: Comar 6EFT, a capped curtain walling system; 6EFT SG 4sided, a structural silicon glazing system which achieves a cutting edge façade with no visible aluminium sight lines; and 6EFT SG 2sided, a structural silicon glazing system with horizontal or vertical capping where feature and bespoke finishes can be achieved using a variety of cover caps.
• Comar
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 83
Timber frame solutions
Following its acquisition of Pace Timber Systems and Potton, Kingspan Off-Site can provide a range of timber frame solutions. The TEK structural insulated panel system offers high thermal efficiency for homes producing a U value as low as 0.20W/m2K. The Optima closed panel system includes internal and external walling systems, which are delivered to site with dry lining, insulation, conduits and pre-installed doors and windows, as well as floor cassettes, stairs and roof panels or whole erected roofs.
• Kingspan Off-Site
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 84
Space4 wins timber frame deal
Space4 has won a deal to supply timber frame systems to Procure East. The Procure East partnership has been set up by housing associations East Thames, Circle Anglia, the Hyde Group/Minster HA, Flagship Housing Group and Nene Housing Society. The group aims to invest in modern methods of construction that will deliver cost savings, reduce waste by up to 70% and speed construction times across their schemes in the East of England.
• Space4
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 85
Frame UK celebrates 300
South West-based timber frame specialist Frame UK is supplying its 300th home to Advantage South West, a consortium of four regional housing associations. The timber frame maker is in the second year of its agreement to supply timber frame to the consortium, whose members are Ocean Housing Group, Devon and Cornwall Housing, South Somerset Homes and North Devon Homes. Earlier this month Frame UK erected a two-bedroom house at the Eden Project in four hours to demonstrate timber frame’s speed of construction for a housing conference on the site.
• Frame UK
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 86
iLevel engineered flooring
A new timber frame housing scheme forming part of an urban village at Wigan Pier has used iLevel Trus Joist engineered floors. The 200-apartment scheme by Stewart Milne Group uses 17,500 linear metres of TJI joists in varying sizes. To meet the disproportionate collapse requirements of the Building Regulations more than 4,000 linear metres of Parallam PSL were installed around the perimeter of each floor to support its load should a wall panel be removed.
n iLevel
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 87
Rainscreen panels for Wimpey
Silver aluminium composite rainscreen panels from CEP Claddings have been specified for George Wimpey’s Aura scheme in Peckham Rye in south-east London. The scheme was designed by architect Clague with working drawings by Barrett Haskins Designs. The eight-storey E building is clad in CEP’s Etalbond aluminium composite panelling, as well as cement render, facing brick, ship-lap cedar boarding and copper. The 4mm thick silver panels were screw-fixed onto a simple support system comprising aluminium top-hat and Z profiles by Sealfix Installations.
• CEP Claddings
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 88
Steel stud sections from Lindab
Construline from Lindab is a range of steel stud sections for external or internal partition walls, providing an alternative to block or timber frame. The steel wall studs can be used for both load bearing and non-load bearing applications and are produced in a range of specified pre-cut sizes and thicknesses.
• Lindab
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 89
Alumasc render
Swansea council’s housing department specified Alumasc Render products for its group repair scheme for housing in the Hafod renewal area project. The manufacturer’s MR 57 Polymer Cement Spar Dash render finish was specified for the external refurbishment of the homes. Complete renewal of house facades was required, with the removal of existing damaged render followed by the application of MR S3 dubbing render and glass fibre scrim reinforcement to support the finish coat. The new facade was finished with Luxovite aggregate dash.
• Alumasc
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 90
Accreditation scheme campaign
The Steel Homes Group has launched a campaign calling for streamlined accreditation to support the development of innovative systems for housebuilding. It believes existing product-based certification schemes do not lend themselves to the introduction of new processes and wants an accreditation system focused on design and engineering processes, rather than building materials.
• Steel Homes Group
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 91
Rainscreen cladding system
The PanAsh rainscreen cladding system comprises an outer skin of natural sandstone, a ventilated gap and a waterproof backing panel. Panel sizes range from 450mm x 300mm to 750mm x 500mm with stone thickness ranging from 35mm to 40mm.
• Stancliffe
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 92
Wood grain cladding
Cladding manufacturer Trespa’s Meteon panels in wood grain finishes were specified to clad Hollybrook Homes’ The Sphere apartment development in east London’s Royal Victoria Docks. The walnut panels feature in the inset balcony and window areas of the building, which was designed by Nicholas Burwell Architects.
• Trespa
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 93
Norbord wood-based panels
Architect Iain Bruce and engineer Bill Graham have created a prefabricated housing module constructed from Norbord’s Sterling OSB engineered wood-based panels. Modules measure 12m long, 4.4m wide and 2.8m high and so would be classified as a wide load when transported, but this is avoided by turning the units on their side using a specially designed jig. In order to be able to rotate the module, the designers needed a material that could withstand the stresses produced by the procedure. Tests were carried out on an 8 tonne unit fitted out with partition walls, kitchen units and bathroom fixtures.
• Norbord
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 94
Concrete data sheets
The Concrete Block Association has published a new set of technical data sheets. The set comprises 15 data sheets covering all aspects of construction, thermal and acoustic performance, good site practice and safe handling.
• Concrete Block Association
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires 95
Kawneer glazing brochure
Kawneer has produced a brochure showcasing projects using its architectural aluminium glazing systems.
• Kawneer
www.stewartmilne.com
www.regeneratelive.co.uk/enquires
www.natural-building.co.uk
www.levolux.com
www.space4.co.uk
www.framehomes.co.uk
www.cepcladdings.com
www.lindab.co.uk
www.alumasc-exteriors.co.uk
www.steelhomesgroup.com
www.stancliffe.com
www.trespa.com
www.norbord.com
www.cba-blocks.org.uk
www.Kawneer.co.uk
www.comar-alu.co.uk
www.kingspanoffsite.com
www.ilevel.eu
Source
RegenerateLive
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