You would expect the workers of Silicon Fen to have an appetite for something a little different when it comes to housing, and Plum Developments is tapping into the market for modern house design with a string of small schemes around the Cambridge area. Its latest project at Melbourn places three four-bedroom detached houses in a conservation area and adjacent to a grade II-listed building that has been renovated as part of the scheme.
Putting the modern alongside the traditional often generates local opposition, but NOVO Design's solution has earned praise for its design, which combines white render and zinc roofing with some crisp, clean detailing. The houses' white rendered walls also contribute to thermal performance. External walls are made from Celcon 300 mm solar blocks, combined with thin joint mortar and finished in SBD Weber system render of 40 mm polystyrene with glass reinforcing mesh and an acrylic finish. This gives the walls their low U-value of 0.25 W/m2K.
"Apart from my desire to build a maintenance-free house, I was looking for methods of speeding the build process that would also offer good insulation," says Tim Poulson, founder of both Plum and NOVO Design. Full-height windows, coupled between storeys, have both an aesthetic and a practical purpose. "This arrangement is in part to satisfy the internal environment and prospect and in part to simplify the construction of the thin joint lightweight blockwork walls and the externally insulated render system," says Poulson. Roofs are made from an insulated composite panel system with a raised seam weathered zinc covering.
And if the architectural establishment gave an award for best designed garage, this scheme would surely win it. With room for two cars, the garages are perfectly proportioned freestanding pavilions, with a steel frame and the same render and zinc finish as the houses, plus electrically operated glazed doors.
What's the spec
Zinc Roof
Rheinzink
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 900
Walls
H+H Celcon
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 901
Render
SBD Weber
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 902
Timber windows
Swedhouse
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 903
Cavity Closers
Cavity Trays has introduced a range of fire integrity rated closers for reveals, party walls, cavity isolation and cavity wall compartmenting. The range comprises eight products with from 30 minutes to four hours' fire integrity, which can close cavities up to 150 mm wide.
Cavity Trays
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 905
Loadbearing lintel
Hanson Brick has introduced the CombiArch, which combines a traditional brickwork arch with a loadbearing steel lintel to support the loading of an outer leaf cavity wall. The Combi comes with a brick slip finish, and the pointing carried out in the factory or on site to match the brickwork. Each lintel has a 200 mm end bearing. Standard arches are produced in spans of 900 mm, 1200 mm and 1770 mm.
Hanson Brick
www.hansonbrick.com
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 906
Wall construction method
Insulating concrete formwork allows housebuilders to manufacture walls on site. The technology involves ready-mixed concrete poured into twin-walled expanded polystyrene panels or blocks. Walls are 240-600 mm thick and have a U-value of 0.2 W/m2K.
Insulating Concrete Formwork Association
www.icfinfo.org.uk
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 907
Stonechip cladding
Fife council is completing the refurbishment programme of 1950s system-built homes, using Dollken Cladding. The Dollken system was specified because, the company says, it improves thermal performance, provides an attractive finish, and is a dry application that can be applied in harsh weather conditions. Dollken Stonechip Cladding is made from cellular foam thermo plastic with natural stone aggregate embedded into the surface. Panels are mounted vertically onto a latticework of treated wooden battens fitted to the wall that have insulation placed between them.
Dollken Cladding
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 909
Insulation panel
Linden Homes is using Springvale Platinum Floorshield insulation to achieve energy efficiency for a development of 43 apartments in Wroughton, Wiltshire. Springvale Platinum Floorshield is a rigid insulation panel, intended for ground supported and suspended concrete floors. The 50 mm Platinum Floorshield earned Linden an SAP rating of 90.
Springvale
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 910
Euromix mortar silo
The first EuroMix mortar silo has gone on site at Park Central, Birmingham, and another 13 will follow as development of the massive site gets under way. The scheme, which is being undertaken in a partnership between Birmingham council, affordable housing provider Optima Community Housing, and Crest Nicholson, involves the construction of more than 1400 homes, plus some 26,500 m2 of commercial space. CPI Mortars is supplying a variety of products and systems, including the silo mixing station, which provides a continuous supply of ready-mixed mortar.
CPI Mortars
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 911
Wall system
A high-performance wall system developed for use in multi-screen cinemas has been fitted in the 拢750,000 penthouses in Persimmon's K2 apartment scheme in Leeds. British Gypsum's GypWall AUDIO system is being fitted to provide the penthouses with exceptional levels of sound insulation performance, as well as 120 minutes' fire protection and a damage-resistant high impact surface. The system comprises acoustically braced twin independent Gypframe metal frames lined to both sides with Gyproc Plank and Gyproc DuraLine performance boards.
British Gypsum
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 912
Stonework
Cast stone from Meadowstone was used to replicate traditional stonework when the Victorian Brook House in Repton, Derbyshire, was refurbished and converted into 16 apartments by Mainstream Properties. The restoration project called for decorative cast stone heads and sills in a bathstone colour.
Meadowstone
www.meadowstone.co.uk
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 913
Fast-track cladding
Corium, Baggeridge's fast-track clay brick cladding system, has been used to create a two-storey penthouse apartment on top of an existing building in London's Porchester Gate. The apartment is designed by McCusker Storey McIntosh for BMB Investments and has 320 m2 of Corium tiles, in Buff and Red Multi in a Flemish Bond. The Corium system was specified for its light weight, because of the restricted access of the project, and because it matched the brickwork of the existing structure. Kavanah Construction was main contractor on the project, and PCE was the Corium installer.
Corium
www.coriumcladding.com
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 914
Beam and block creates solid welsh floor
www.building.co.uk/enquiries 904
Trends
FinnForest鈥檚 I-beams have been used in floor systems many times 鈥� but as part of a wall? That鈥檚 what Century Homes is doing in the prefabricated panels of its new timber-framed executive home, currently on site in Monaghan, Ireland 鈥� and FinnForest reckons this is just the start. The timber products supplier says its I-beams are lightweight, significantly stronger than solid timber beams and because the wood is moisture-reduced, the risk of shrinkage is lessened. This means defects are cut down and there is much less risk of thermal bridging, so the product complies with new energy regulations. In a joint venture with the housebuilder, super-insulatable wall panels are now being manufactured off-site using the I-beams. The panels are said to be much lighter to handle than traditional timber panels, so installation time is reduced, and the reduced shrinkage and defects means that the panels are Part L-friendly, with a U-value of 0.2 W/m2K. What鈥檚 more, as I-beams are deeper than standard beams, there is more space to slot in insulating materials. The result, says Century Homes, is a house that needs minimal heating, even on the coldest days. The higher cost of the panels means it鈥檚 unlikely the executive home market will adopt them 鈥� even though the capital outlay would be recouped in saved energy bills, says Century Homes. But the panels are said to be ideal for social housing where the client has an interest in whole-life performance. FinnForest says it has now negotiated a major deal to supply I-beam panels to a housing association in the UK. www.building.co.uk/enquiries 908
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