£4.271M UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE CENTRE UNDER WAY

The project incorporates a single storey conference facility, which includes a large multi-purpose conference room, kitchen, toilets, office, plant room and external works.

The building is impressive in its design due to its significant glazing and position overlooking a large existing lake, giving the impression of a building floating above water.

“The position adjacent to the pond creates a few challenges for our site team,” said Adrian Speller, Director of Sustainability at Speller Metcalfe. “It was decided the fish should be transferred to a part of the lake that wouldn’t cause them further disruption or harm, which was done by way of a stun process.

“Following this, we have undertaken extensive sheet piling to ensure the building is solid in its foundations, with a drainage system in place to deal with rainwater run-off and excessive ground water.”

The new conference centre is to be built to BREEAM Excellent, the design of which is a hybrid of glulam and timber laminated beams, creating a latticework effect which is outwardly displayed as part of the building. The standing seam roof also incorporates turret light wells, marrying in with the ceiling grid and cross hatching of the glulam beams.

Although a traditional build, Speller Metcalfe was brought in at late design stage to advise on value engineering solutions and helped save towards £300,000.

The project is due to complete in august 2016.