Remoulding the fort

MITIE Engineering Services has teamed up with Urban Splash to breathe new life into one of Birmingham’s most iconic buildings. Built in 1916, the 32 000 m2 Fort Dunlop site once housed one of the world’s largest factories, but the eponymous tyre manufacturing works had stood derelict for more than a quarter of a century before the cutting-edge developer came along and transformed it into a stylish multi-purpose space.

Creating a looming presence over the M6, Fort Dunlop provides an historic gateway to the Midlands and, where appropriate, original features have been retained. However, this is no conventional redevelopment. Architect shedkm has created a bold, modern statement without compromising this fitting testament to the industrial foundations upon which the city was built.

With its striking blue wedge-effect hotel, distinctive porthole-style windows and funky central atrium, all housed beneath the UK’s largest sedum roof, the ex-factory truly stands out from the myriad of sites being converted into retail and workspace. It has already won a whole host of accolades, including Developer of the Year for Urban Splash at the West Midlands Property Awards.

The upper levels provide unique office space, whilst the ground floor is dedicated to an exciting range of cafes, restaurants and shops, including stylish furniture store Dwell and the iconic rock and pop photographic gallery Snap. The development is expected to bring over 2500 jobs to its fringe-of-the-city location.

The new face of Fort Dunlop opened its doors on 1 December 2006, though the final handover for m&e services took place in January this year. Everything was completed on time and budget, albeit with a few challenges along the way.

“It wasn’t like a traditional project where you build it to suit the environment and everything else you’re going to deliver,” says MITIE Engineering Services’ project director Hugh Pryce. “Everything was already set and we had to incorporate modern services into the building.”

MITIE’s strategy was to work with what they already had. “We had four fixed points of distribution,” explains Pryce. “It was chopped up into sections and we fed everything off that. And then we had to consider what we could put in that space and locate the plant.”

The substantial size of the building resulted in runs that are hundreds of metres away from the centralised plant. However, ensuring the building retained a sense of its original identity resulted in space constraints with regards to plant sizing. “We were forced to do the design between us many times to come up with final solution,” says Pryce. The continuous exchange of drawings electronically via the intranet facilitated project management, but the learning curve with regards to co-ordinated drawings was a steep one all round.

“The biggest thing we’ve learnt is to get the drawings correct and to get an early input into the design. On a traditional contract, the design would have gone a lot quicker, whereas we were playing catch-up at the start,” explains Pryce. “With the unique nature of the contract, we didn’t just need, for example, a particular sort of light fitting. We needed light fittings that were bespoke to the project, so we had to have them specially made. The actual fittings are on view, and we had to have black boxed ones that achieved certain light levels.”

The design also demanded smoke detectors which were the same colour as the light fittings, but getting hold of black ones impaired the team’s progress. “If you put a fire alarm system in you’ve always got to think forward to whether you can get the smoke detector straight off the shelf,” says Pryce. “If not, it’s not going to be next day delivery. It could be five or six weeks before you get it. But we got it down to a fine art in the end.”

Due to the absence of ceiling voids for services distribution, all major services such as air conditioning, heating and ducting are located within the floor. Lighting is hung from the coffers.

From an m&e perspective, the project’s key feature is its energy efficient underground heating and cooling system (see box, Blowing hot and cold). In order to save time, the large steel piping which was used to take the header across the roof for the water loops was prefabricated and then craned into position and welded or attached using Victaulic joints. The team also made use of pre-cut ducting.

Time savings also came with experience. Since MITIE had started working on the Fort Dunlop project in April 2005, the contract had grown from £3.5 million to £7 million. “The original contract was for the infrastructure and landlord services, but it was extended and we became responsible for the fit outs on the floors as well,” explains Pryce. “Winning a contract which then grows to such an extent means the benefits really roll in time-wise. For instance, we could kit out a floor in four months now, and that’s everybody – building, decoration and tested commissions. But the first floor probably took six or seven months.”

MITIE also provided the power supplies for Fort Dunlop’s distinctive illuminated sky sign, which was installed by ASG. At night, the Hollywood-style lettering positioned above the roof changes colour in unison with the LED track which runs around the site, making for a striking visual display.

If this isn’t picturesque enough for you, the living grass and sedum roof garden offers spectacular views over the city. It is also set to become a veritable haven for wild birdlife, including the kestrels and black redstarts that quite happily set up home at the Fort when it was originally abandoned.

“We had to put an irrigation system up there with a booster system to raise the water pressure from the basement. So you’ve got all of that going up eight floors just to water a garden,” laughs Pryce.

On the surface of things, it may be a simple patch of grass, but perhaps this humble roof-top garden will prove a symbol of regeneration and environmental change amongst the multitude of dismal and disheartening buildings along the M6 corridor. Birmingham for the new capital of culture, anyone?