Sunshine Energy System

New energy system set to reduce carbon emissions and provide homeowners with annual savings on their energy bills goes live in Nottingham

An award-winning community energy scheme in Nottingham has introduced a brand-new energy system, which predicts to reduce residents’ energy bills over the next year.

Trent Basin is a housing development currently made up of over 70 energy-efficient homes being built on the banks of the River Trent that form an active energy community. The scheme is being delivered by developer Blueprint alongside a joint venture between the University of Nottingham and SmartKlub who have formed Trent Basin Energy Services Company (ESCo) Ltd with a vision to push the boundaries of energy efficiency targets.

The new system transfers solar energy from the individual homes to an energy centre, which determines where the energy is best placed to be used – whether that’s in residents’ meters, to reduce their energy bills, or out to support the grid.

 

Mark Gillott, Professor of Sustainable Building Design at the University of Nottingham and a Director of Trent Basin ESCo Ltd, said: “At a time when energy bills are at the forefront of people’s minds, it’s never been more important to ensure that we’re utilising our energy as efficiently as possible. This is the first energy system of its kind in the country, providing a different way of generating, storing, and using energy within the built environment.

“A key component of the scheme is the innovative way we can manage energy assets – both financially and technically. This installation marks the beginning of a 12-month trial, during which time we’re aiming to reduce the energy bills of homeowners and show that a smart, local energy system works to not only reduce cost, but also carbon too.”

 

Earlier this year, the Trent Basin scheme scooped the Community Award at this year’s British Renewable Energy Awards 2022, celebrating community groups that have been active in delivering a renewable energy project or programme of installations in their local area. More recently, it was also Highly Commended in the Research with Impact – Institution category at the Green Gown Awards 2022, where it was praised for its environmental and social co-benefits.

 

Charles Bradshaw-Smith, Co-CEO at SmartKlub and Managing Director of Trent Basin ESCo Ltd, said: “My vision is to create a community energy model at Trent Basin that can be adopted by every housing developer across the UK. A model that not only delivers greener and cheaper energy to residents, but also supports the grid as it meets the massive challenge of supplying power to legacy housing neighbourhoods as they fit heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers over the next 20 plus years.”

 

So far, the scheme is estimated to have saved the equivalent of 34 tonnes of CO2 per year and benefited at least 262 people.  Nick Wood, who lives at Trent Basin, was drawn to the development for the opportunity to play his part combatting climate change.

He said: “When choosing to move to Trent Basin, the energy scheme was key in my decision-making process. Knowing that I’m not contributing to the ongoing climate crisis has made me feel like I’m doing my part and working with the University and SmartKlub has been a breeze – they’ve been there every step of the way. All this combined means we have a cheap, green, energy source that is produced locally and even my car now runs on sunshine!”

 

  1. Mark added: “While our vision is to enable all future housing developments to embrace renewables to lower their energy costs and carbon footprint, providing a no-hassle energy solution for homeowners and developers, it’s not just new builds where this concept could be used. There’s the potential for retrofitting these technologies into our existing housing stock too, which currently represents 22% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the London Energy Transformation Initiative.”

 

The Trent Basin community energy initiative has benefitted from £6m investment through two Innovate UK funded programmes – the Energy Research Accelerator (ERA) and Project SCENe (Sustainable Community Energy Networks). For more information, please visit: www.projectscene.uk/trentbasin/

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Large Scale Lithium Refinery Announced

The UK has provided a £600,000 grant to Green Lithium to kickstart the site – which is set to provide 250 long-term skilled jobs in Teesside.

Mobile phones, wind turbines and fighter jets are other products that require lithium to function.

Business Secretary Grant Shapps said: “This is levelling up in action. The refinery will deliver more than 1,000 jobs during its construction and 250 long-term, high-skill jobs for local people when in operation.

“It is also allowing us to move quickly to secure our supply chains of critical minerals, as we know that geopolitical threats and global events beyond our control can severely impact the supply of key components that could delay the rollout of electric vehicles in the UK.”

 

Source: Energy Live

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Construction trends in tall buildings revealed in new Premier Guarantee report

More than a third of construction issues raised by risk management surveyors during site inspections of tall buildings in the UK relate to external walls, according to a new report by warranty provider Premier Guarantee.

 

The InSite: Tall Buildings 2022 report reveals risk areas and trends in construction details by analysing five years of site inspection data for buildings at least six storeys tall. During this time, Premier Guarantee has worked on more than 800 high rise structures.

The report also considers the growing trend to consider risk at earlier design stages, the rising influence of modern construction methods and the impact of the Building Safety Act on risk management and regulatory compliance in taller buildings.

Barriers remain to wider and faster MMC adoption

InSite: Tall Buildings 2022 includes a summary from Premier Guarantee’s Technical Director Sarah Sheppard, who notes that growth in MMC adoption matches difficulties encountered from an insurance risk management perspective.

Premier Guarantee is seeing an increase in the use of larger components such as cladding panels and internal bathroom pods. Many tall and complex structures already successfully include these elements. The use of innovative methods broadly is becoming more widespread, prompted by a shortage of materials, a shrinking market of skilled, traditional trades, and the drive towards net zero construction.

But according to Sarah, “Demand for MMC is being tempered by barriers against which the UK continues to make limited progress. It is worth remembering that the UK has little experience – and limited use of – modern, modular and system-based construction, especially when compared with some European countries. From this challenging starting point, perhaps it is no surprise the UK still has considerable issues it must work through.

“MMC requires design standardisation from the very initial stages and mass production for maximum gains. From a risk management point of view, design evaluation for products or systems from their inception is challenging. This risk is compounded as many developers require design flexibility, which naturally introduces variation and complexity to MMC components and their use. Design flexibility further limits the potential of the mass production value MMC might bring to construction.

“Premier Guarantee is not alone in these and other observations. Across the sector, concerns remain due to a lack of transparency with some products and continuing issues with compliance with regulations for others. This can give rise to a lack of consistency and quality control issues, with very real potential for systemic failure and defects across multiple units.”

Premier Guarantee is engaging with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on MMC standardization, and continues to work closely with manufacturers, standards bodies and developers to try and bring consistency and cohesion to a challenging area of work.

 

Construction issue areas in tall buildings

Across all issues identified by Premier Guarantee’s risk management surveyors during construction of buildings at least six storeys tall, the report notes:

  • 35% relate to external walls, with steel frame showing a disproportionate number of issues identified during construction
  • 9% account for roofs
  • 5% for internal walls
  • Foundations and basements total 4% each
  • Balcony issues have fallen from 8% share in 2019 to 2% in 2022

Premier Guarantee recorded an uptick in construction issues during construction through the height of the Covid 19 lockdowns but the number identified by surveyors has since fallen back close to 2018/pre-pandemic levels.

All issues considered for the report’s data were subsequently closed by Premier Guarantee, showing that site workers rectified the construction details to the satisfaction of surveyors and the warranty provider’s technical standards.

 

Premier Guarantee is one of the largest providers of structural warranties in the UK and specialises in taller building construction developments through its Major Projects service. Projects have included Chalegrove Properties’ 76-floor Landmark Pinnacle, the tallest residential building in the UK.

Liam Devaney, Managing Director of Premier Guarantee’s Warranty Inspection Services, said: “As a warranty and building control provider, Premier Guarantee has a vital role to play in the construction sector, not just during the construction phase, but for the completed building and its eventual occupants.

“As an industry we have been presented with monumental challenges over the past four years, many of which are discussed by my knowledgeable colleagues in this paper.

“Working with the industry we must help shape the future by building safer, compliant and high quality tall buildings.”

 

Download Premier Guarantee’s Insite: Tall Buildings 2022 report here

 

 

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NEW ARENA IN 6 MONTHS, BUILT USING MMC

A £50m arena in Sheffield city centre could be built in six months using off-site prefabrication methods, a top councillor has claimed.

 

A new 6,500 capacity venue could be quickly erected on Sheffield bus station using new construction practices, according to Councillor Mazher Iqbal. The ambitious project, for a performance, arts and conference venue on the Pond Street site, was revealed in March.

It would host concerts, exhibitions and conferences and could even be a new home for World Snooker after complaints the 980-capacity Crucible is too small to meet demand. A feasibility study is due to end soon, Coun Iqbal said, and he was keen to see it given the green light.

He added: “We are being told there is demand for an arena. Barry Hearn and snooker players want to see bigger crowds than can be accommodated at the Crucible and we’ve been speaking to organisations including the universities about their conferences and events. Using modern methods of construction we understand it could be built in a year or six months.

“The scoping exercise ends soon and we’ll make a decision then, but I’m keen to see it happen, it would generate additional footfall and be great for the city centre.”

It is understood the new venue would answer a need for a conference space bigger than the Octagon at Sheffield University, the City Hall or Ponds Forge sports centre. It would be easily accessible on foot, by train and by car, with a proposed new park and ride near the Veolia incinerator on Bernard Road. Meanwhile, the 14,000-capacity Utilita Arena in Attercliffe could focus on sports such as ice hockey and larger bands.

Sheffield City Council has a ‘Strategic Vision’ to ‘intensify the events calendar’ and increase the number of city centre residents by 20,000 to more than 60,000.

Former Sheffield MP Richard Caborn backs a new arena. He said previously that chairing the unsuccessful bid for Channel 4 in 2018 had ‘opened his eyes’ to the wealth of creative and digital firms in the city. He said: “It told me we have some of the best creative businesses in the country. Now we need something at the centre of all that. It would anchor an area stretching from the Cultural Industries Quarter to Castlegate.”

Sheffield City Council has a ‘Strategic Vision’ to ‘intensify the events calendar’ and increase the number of city centre residents by 20,000 to more than 60,000.

 

Source: The Star

 

 

 

 

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GUIDE: Climate Change Resilience in the Build Environment

World Green Building Council launches a guide to ‘Climate Change Resilience in the Built Environment’ to support a global transition towards infrastructure solutions which focus on people

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has launched today (26 October 2022) a new industry guide on ‘Climate Change Resilience in the Built Environment’, collating effective and practical steps that can be taken on a building, community and city scale in order to adapt and build resilience to the changing climate.

Under the inevitable impacts of climate change, which are affecting at least 85% of the world’s population, bringing acute hazards such as droughts, rising sea levels, heat waves and floods increasing frequency and severity, resilience action is essential to build community capacity to survive and thrive in our built environments.

That’s why WorldGBC’s flagship Health and Wellbeing global programme Better Places for People (BPFP) has partnered with the UN High-Level Climate Champions and C40 Cities to deliver this timely resource for enabling adaptation at different urban scales and inspiring decisive action to deliver on the needs of communities around the world.

On 10 November 2022, during the Youth & Future Generations Day at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP27, and in line with ‘Resilience’ being the UN High-Level Climate Champions’ focus of the day, the guide will be showcased at a high-level event in the Buildings Pavilion of the Blue Zone. This will continue to elevate awareness on the critical role of the built environment for securing a resilient future.

What is the aim of the guide?

The ‘Climate Change Resilience in the Built Environment’ guide presents principles of built environment management for changes to weather related climate change impacts such as: storms, high winds, droughts, floods, severe temperature change, and wildfires. These principles are focused on measures of mitigation and damage protection from continual or gradual climate impacts and in some cases, extreme weather events.

The impacts of climate change and damage from extreme and gradual weather events will occur at building, community and city scale across all corners of the globe. Therefore, measures to mitigate damage and ensure recoverability must be implemented at a systemic level. To incorporate climate resilience strategies across a series of complex systems, all built environment stakeholders and decision makers will have to engage and take responsibility. Leadership from local and national government is essential to activate meaningful adaptation and resilience solutions.

WorldGBC encourages the broad range of built environment stakeholders set out in the guide to engage with their role, to exert their influence and implement change. Under the inevitable impacts of climate change, resilience action is essential if we are to build the community capacity to survive and thrive within our built environments.

We need to listen and learn from the voices of those communities most impacted by climate impacts – to respond adequately in the delivery of resiliency solutions.

WorldGBC is grateful for the support from the BPFP Steering Committee and Sponsors, including Buro Happold, Multiplex, Saint-Gobain, and Shaw Contract.

The full guide can be downloaded here.

COMMENTS:

Cristina Gamboa, CEO, WorldGBC:

 “In response to the ongoing impacts of our changing climate, the UN High-Level Climate Champion, C40 cities, and WorldGBC are proud to share this practical guide for Climate Change Resilience in the Built Environment in the lead up to COP27. This principle-based resource will support the much-needed transition towards people-centric infrastructure solutions considering different urban scales.

 It’s time to scale low carbon, highly resilient and equitable built environment solutions for everyone, everywhere. And it’s time for impactful policy responses from local and regional leaders, to enable this much needed transformation.

 Join us and take ambitious climate action today!”

 

Nigel Topping, UN High-Level Climate Action Champion for UK COP26, and
Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN’s High-Level Climate Action Champion for Egypt COP27:

“The built environment sector has the opportunity to lead the resilience agenda, placing adaptation on par with mitigation through how we design, manage and occupy buildings and infrastructure for the worlds’ people. Regardless of where you live or where you do business, we all need to build resilience to climate change.”

 

Sachin Bhoite, Director of Climate Resilience, Climate Solutions and Networks, C40 Cities:

“The dangerous consequences of climate change are already posing an existential threat worldwide. This is felt acutely in our largest cities. Cities are important in this regard, not only because it is where a majority of people live, but also where the most impactful solutions could be implemented. Applying adaptation solutions to our cities will ensure that the built environment continues to protect, provide for and connect urban citizens, despite a changing climate.”

 

Pascal Eveillard, Director, Sustainable Business Development, Saint-Gobain:

“It is fundamental to consider now the resilience and adaptation of our built environment to climate change. Buildings are and will be increasingly exposed to higher climate stresses and more frequent climate shocks and extreme weather conditions, disrupting our lives and damaging our natural environment. This guide provides key insights to develop efficient strategies at all levels to better protect humans and nature.”

 

María Fernández Cachafeiro, Head of Sustainability, Multiplex:

“The impacts of climate change are a present-day reality felt by everyone, globally. We need to put people first to deliver strategies and solutions for a resilient and adaptable built environment.”

 

 Kellie Ballew, Vice President of Global Sustainability, Shaw Contract:

“The resilience of our built environment – the spaces where we live, work, learn, heal, and come together – is more important than ever and requires a focus on people AND the planet.”

 

Viviana Valdivieso, CEO, Colombia Green Building Council (CCCS):

“We are committed to promoting a built environment that positively impacts all life on our planet. Therefore, sustainable and resilient practices should not be an option, they are the way to achieve fundamental human right level design!”

 

Jorge Chapa, Head of Market Transformation, Green Building Council Australia (GBCA):

“In Australia, many of the communities who fought bushfires in 2019 are today inundated with floods. The climate is changing, here and now. It’s time for the built environment to respond.”

 

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The Age of Metaverse in Construction

 

 

By Dr. Harpreet Seth, Head of Architecture at Heriot-Watt University Dubai

 

 

To many, the metaverse is a new word, a concept born of the internet age, a distant and scary place to contemplate visiting.

In reality, however, the first recorded use of the word was in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel, Snow Crash. In the novel, the protagonist, Hiro, moves in and out of a place called the metaverse, a computer-generated urban landscape where users can have real life like experiences.

Now, the metaverse is becoming a place for collaboration and innovation, visited by the next generation of engineers, designers and fashionistas through multi-sensory connected devices such as augmented reality (AR) glasses and virtual reality (VR) headsets.

Of course, 3D visualisation has been commonplace in construction for some time but is the industry ready to take the next step and enter the metaverse?

 

What is the metaverse?

 

The metaverse is a virtual-reality space where users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.  It is a 3D evolution of the internet, representing a virtual universe that can be experienced like the real world.

As one of the fastest-growing industries, the construction sector stands to gain from the metaverse in the future and not just the core industry, but other players involved, such as designers, architects, and project managers. Metaverse in the construction industry will help designers and architects create spaces in an increasingly efficient manner.

 

How can it be used in construction?

 

It is imperative to understand the importance of metaverse at all three stages of construction: design, development, and build. In these stages, the concept provides a near-real feel of the end product through AR and VR.

While architects, designers, and project managers will undoubtedly benefit from the metaverse, these professions will also help build it. Architects and designers are extremely important to create any space in the virtual environment, from designing indoor to outdoor spaces, which they also handle in the physical world. The potential of the experiential quality of the metaverse for its users is key to a holistic experience.

For construction project managers, it will allow them to live in the space as it is being developed, to literally walk through the rooms as they build around them. While they cannot be present at every meeting or site visit, they can keep an eye on everything happening at the build stage with the help of these virtual representations.

On the engineering side, the metaverse can help ensure all of a building’s operational systems, from ventilation and heating to lighting and security, are fully integrated. These are called ‘smart buildings’ and are essential in the drive towards achieving net zero.

Energy companies and government bodies around the world are busy retrofitting existing buildings with intelligent monitoring and management systems which ensure energy is used only when and where it is needed but imagine a scenario where issues likely to affect a building’s green footprint can be flagged in advance of construction. For example, the ability to exist in a space before it is built might provide useful insight into how human traffic or natural sunlight are likely to impact on the temperature of a particular room at any given time.

By creating a building’s digital twin, estate managers can run simulations using real-life scenarios before committing funds to a project. In short, it eliminates much of the guesswork, saving both money and the environment.

 

Are there potential downsides to the metaverse?

 

There is a danger that users will confuse the real with the virtual. A project imagined and viewed in a virtual world may look quite different to what is finally delivered in the real world. It will not be long before all things in the physical world will be given a virtual representation, blurring the boundaries of the physical and digital even further.

There are also the inevitable data privacy issues and questions over ownership. Who owns a virtual asset, for example? Does a company which owns a building in the real world also own its representation in the virtual world? Do they enjoy the same level of property protection and legal coverage? These are questions lawyers and ethicists are debating right now and it’s a complex area.

Accessibility and awareness are further challenges that can be a deterrent to the metaverse concept reaching its full potential.

 

Next generation 

 

At Heriot-Watt University we offer our students the opportunity to learn using the very latest technology, including AR and VR, and encourage an environment where academia and industry can come together to find solutions to all sorts of problems.

Featuring the ‘Imagineering Suite’, our GRID facility in Edinburgh operates as an incubator space for start-ups and entrepreneurs to co-locate and encourage their creative ideas to flourish. Users also have the capability to connect with global industry partners and our other university campuses around the world.

As part of our ‘Shaping Tomorrow Together’ strategy, we have appointed Professor Gabriella Medero, herself the founder of a Heriot-Watt spin out construction company, Kenoteq, as Associate Principal for Enterprise. Her role is to build a strong pipeline of academic entrepreneurs and develop new and innovative entrepreneurial initiatives.

Students leaving our university will be skilled in using the tools of the metaverse, ready to take their fresh ideas and energy into industries keen to support their ambitions.

Still nascent, the metaverse’s capabilities are yet to be fully seen and explored. However, the construction industry must be a leader in exploring its potential. In short, we need to be metaverse pioneers.

 

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Pioneering new test for mortar durability

Lucideon unveils pioneering new test for mortar durability

Construction industry testing specialist Lucideon has launched a pioneering new method to assess the durability of mortar.

The company’s new special publication, “Determination of the Freeze Thaw Resistance of Mortar”, provides guidance around assessing the ability of mortars to withstand UK climatic conditions.

Developed to be in line with specifications set by the European Standards Organisation, the mortar durability test aims to ensure that products used in building projects are of the required standard across the UK and Europe. It will also provide a useful tool for insurers.

Dr Geoff Edgell, Lucideon’s Principal Consultant for Construction, said: “This is an extremely important subject and becoming more so as time goes on because cement manufacturers, in seeking to produce more environmentally friendly products, are reducing the amount of ordinary Portland cement in their products.

 

“We are also seeing new types of mortar being introduced to the market.

“As a result, we need to be able to determine that mortars being produced are going to be durable for use in UK climatic conditions.

“The test, which has been calibrated against performance on-site at a very severe exposure location in the East Midlands, is available now.

“We believe it is the first of its type available in the UK.”

 

The mortar durability test joins Lucideon’s established ‘freeze/thaw’ assessment method, used for the testing of clay-based products and forms the basis of the European test method for clay bricks.

Lucideon has been developing and operating these accelerated tests for over 45 years.

Accepted as industry standards, the Stoke-on-Trent based company’s current tests for masonry walling, roof tiles and pavers are UKAS accredited and have been validated against natural conditions.

A copy of the special publication and a video explaining the new mortar durability test is available at www.lucideon.com/mortar.

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JAPAN – Green – the new colour of business

Yanmar, a global leader in the design and manufacture of construction equipment, has been on its zero greenhouse gas emissions path for over a decade. The scale of the challenge is huge – and success will be driven by economic considerations more than concern for the climate, believes Chief Strategy Officer Shiori Nagata.

Japan is an island with limited natural resources. We hate waste and have learnt the merits of circulating everything. Making better use of resources goes right back to 1912, when our founder Magokichi Yamaoka set up Yanmar with the aim of making more efficient use of fuel in engines. Then the ‘fuel’ was just oil, but today the options are so much wider – bringing hope for a cleaner future – but complexity at the same time.

At the Yanmar Group our corporate mission since 2012 has been ‘A sustainable future’. This is not just to please our ESG investors, it is truly our passion, our purpose – and our dream.

…but no one said it was going to be easy

Even now that we are a decade into our ‘Green Challenge’ we still forecast that it will take a further 28 years to achieve our zero environmental impact goal. By 2050 we will be totally free of greenhouse gas emissions in our business activities, circulate all resources and support our customers so that they can achieve the same greenhouse goals as us.

Of course, we would like to achieve our climate/societal goals faster, but we must be realistic as to the scale of the challenge. In 2019 we calculated that we caused 0.2 million tons of CO2 to enter the atmosphere from what we define as our scope 1 & 2, while a further two million tons came from our supply chain – and a staggering 80 million tons of CO2 was released from customers using our machines.

Changing this is going to take time. Our machines are made from steel, plastics, rubber etc. – and many of these components currently have no (or limited) green options. But we are committed to using them as they become available. In the meantime, we will source green energy and create our own, using solar panels on factory roofs. It will be a step-by-step approach, and different countries and customers will move at different speeds. This is much more than a Yanmar challenge – going green is as much a societal challenge as a technical one.

Electric machines make business sense

Electrifying our machines will be vital in achieving our zero carbon ambitions. And it is going to happen. But this is not as simple as in the car business, and many hurdles to adoption remain. The charging infrastructure needs to develop, and battery machines need to be proven in the harsh work environments of construction. People won’t buy electric machines to save the planet – they will buy them because they make economic sense. Fortunately, as costs fall, the total cost of benefit of using electric machines will make them the compelling option. As with the new range of electric machines we launch at bauma, they are simpler, more comfortable, with low vibrations and noise, and lower running costs.

We are starting on the energy transition with battery electric powered smaller machines, but by the end of the decade we will introduce hydrogen power in our larger equipment. All the major components of electrification are on a sharp development curve that will continually make them better. It’s a step-by-step approach to the green future we seek.

Multi-fuel future

Even electric machines have their own environmental challenges – if the electricity that powers them comes from a lignite coal power station, is it really that cleaner? Perhaps controversially, the much-maligned internal combustion engine (ICE) has a part to play in the green future. It must – if we all went electric today there isn’t nearly sufficient electricity generation to power them. But the ICE can be made clean, by burning non-CO2 fuels such as hydrogen and other much cleaner biofuels. Even here there are difficult choice to make – biofuels compete with food production, and in a world of growing hunger, what takes priority – the climate tomorrow or survival today? That too is society’s challenge to answer. What is clear is that we will go from a single fuel type – diesel – to diversified fuel types in the future. If it’s a choice between extra complexity to make the environment better, then it’s a challenge we are happy to accept!

At Yanmar we take global food scarcity seriously. We are applying our ‘no waste’ philosophy to supporting farmers with precision agricultural solutions. We have developed a recycling machine that takes waste food, dries and processes it by microbe, and results in a nutrient rich fertilizer. The perfect example of resource circulation.

Meeting society’s challenges

So, meeting the goals of our Green Challenge will take until 2050 to achieve. There is no short cut. We are optimistic about a carbon free future – but also realistic about what is possible – and how fast it can become a reality.

These ideas come from a heartfelt passion to build something good for society and the environment. Our purpose is to meet society’s challenges with intelligent solutions. We’re committed to green being the new color of business.

 

 

 

 

Shiori Nagata, CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) and member of the Board at the Yanmar Group

 

www.yanmar.com

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Uponor supply pipework for the offsite construction of a £60m hotel built in just 12 weeks

Uponor has supplied high performance multi-layered composite (MLC) piping to offsite building solutions specialist, Elements Europe, as part of the manufacture of 329-bathroom pods for the new Manchester city centre £60m Clayton Hotel development.

Situated in the prime location of Portland Street in the centre of Manchester, the luxurious four-star hotel replaced a 50-year-old office block and is now operated by the Dalata Hotel Group, Ireland’s largest hotel group which is currently expanding its presence into the UK.

Opting to manufacture bathroom pods offsite meant that the main phases of the hotel could be built rapidly. Uponor worked closely with the Elements Europe’s M&E manager and design team to engineer a new solution that required fewer fittings than a traditional system, maximising efficiencies by saving on both cost and installation time.

Uponor’s MLC (Multi-layer Composite) pipe system was used in the construction of the pods as it offers many installation benefits that were crucial for the fast delivery even of a hotel to this scale.

Consisting of an aluminium core layered inside and outside with temperature resistant polyethylene, the MLC system offers all the benefits of a traditional metal system, such as strength and form stability, combined with the best performance features of modern plastic polymers, such as corrosion resistance and flexibility. With such a wide range of fittings available, the MLC system offers the engineers complete design freedom so they can optimise the end product for their customers.

This unique seamless pipe construction means that the flexibility of the pipe is unmatched and bends were formed by hand, removing the need for elbow joints or additional fittings. By requiring minimal fittings and joints, MLC pipe helps to eliminate the risk of connection failures and leaks, which improves the integrity of the system. Adequate water pressure, as well as minimised risk of connection failures, are also critically important for taller more extensive structures, such as Clayton Hotel, that have demanding water requirements.

 

Paul Whittall, Territory Sales Manager at Uponor, said, “With a successful working relationship spanning 10 years, we were able to work closely with Elements Europe’s M&E manager and design team to engineer a solution that required fewer fittings than a traditional system, maximising efficiencies and saving on both cost and installation time. The MLC pipe was an essential part of the Elements Europe specification for the bathroom pods in this prestigious Clayton Hotel project due to its flexibility, speedy installation and superior insulation qualities.”

“Overall, our strong partnership with Elements Europe, combined with the meticulous offsite construction process, meant that installation ran smoothly, the project kept to timelines, and the high design and quality standards expected of the Clayton Hotel brand were maintained.”

 

CLICK HERE to find out more

 

 

 

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KICKSTARTING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Designed by Fletcher Priest Architects and now under construction in the City of London, the 94,000 sq ft Edenica office development at 100 Fetter Lane is on track to set a “significant” sustainability precedent for UK commercial buildings, Waterman says.

Sustainability consultancy company, Waterman says this scheme for BauMont Real Estate Capital and YardNine is harnessing the latest design techniques to optimise operational energy efficiency and slash embodied carbon.

As part of the development’s “unique” approach to cutting whole-life carbon and creating a robust platform for material circularity, Waterman says its Sustainability Team is pioneering the use of Materials Passports on the project.

Waterman describes Materials Passports as digital data sets which describe characteristics of materials and components in products and systems, giving them “value for present use, recovery and future reuse”.

Our philosophy when it comes to development and refurbishment projects is to take a ‘use less, waste less’ approach.

Edenica will act as a pilot project for their implementation and is the first scheme within the City of London to be designed as a storage bank where materials are held for future reuse, the sustainability consultancy company says.

Working alongside the project manager, Third London Wall, Waterman says its Sustainability team has set out the pathway for procurement to ensure the Materials Passports contain key characteristics of selected building materials held in a centralised database.

This can be used to provide reports on maintenance and potential future reuse over the life of the building and beyond, maximising both material life and whole life value, Waterman says.

Just as a regular passport provides personal details of an individual’s identity, Waterman says Edenica’s Materials Passports will become a snapshot of the building elements’ credentials, providing records of the materials, products, and components that have been used.

The company says that the records will enable the reuse of materials during the building’s operation or at the end of its life, turning the used materials into valuable resources instead of waste.

The scheme’s Materials Passports will facilitate the reuse of materials in the coming years by future owners, design teams, manufacturers and contractors, Waterman says.

It is hugely important that we continually try to advance and innovate to help tackle the climate emergency

BauMont Real Estate Capital’s Managing Director, Natalie Harrison, said: “Our philosophy when it comes to development and refurbishment projects is to take a ‘use less, waste less’ approach.

“We engage sustainability specialists at the outset of our projects to ensure our desire to deliver buildings with best-in-class ESG credentials is taken into account in the early stages of design.

“This leads to better collaboration and promotes innovation, a good example of this being Waterman’s Material Passports initiative being delivered at Edenica, which looks beyond policy, setting a new precedent for London.”

Waterman’s Sustainability Associate, Anastasia Stella, who led the development of Materials Passports at Edenica, said: “It is hugely important that, as construction professionals, we continually try to advance and innovate to help tackle the climate emergency.

“Our Materials Passport initiative shows how even the simplest of concepts can create the potential for a significant reduction in whole-life carbon and optimise re-purposing of materials in the future.”

 

Source: Circular Online

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