Design effort can be spent where it adds the most value – creating places where people want to live and work.. 105 Sumner Street consists of two new-build commercial office buildings, built around a publicly accessible internal courtyard, in total comprising c. 135,000 sq ft.
This scenario is appropriate in multistorey residential buildings.. Other general concerns when using CLT include:.- Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s).
- Shortage of construction expertise.- MEP co-ordination.Conclusions for the industry.
Timber is a renewable material that has the potential to help decarbonise new buildings.However, should the industry move towards using more timber construction, local supply may not be able to meet demand leading to a less sustainable product..
The technical difficulties don’t eliminate the use of engineered timber but it’s clear there are many challenges that require more complex integration and technical knowledge than conventional construction systems..
The application of timber is wide reaching from engineered timber solutions to simple uses of lumber in isolated instances.The benefits of P-DfMA are showing in many areas of the project, but not least in the installation of M&E building services, in RIBA stage 5..
The Forge is designed as open-plan office space, with exposed services and soffit.It is also designed to be zero carbon in both construction and operation.
Our M&E design challenge was to look at the entire office environment and standardise the design of the M&E systems to deliver outstanding performance, while controlling costs and ensuring that the exposed services were aesthetically appealing as well.. Driving value in M&E building services at the Forge.Our solution was to use a small variety of repeatable elements.
(Editor: Simple Glasses)