How the HRS system provides faster, safer and more efficient construction methods
HRS 5 day cycle at NO6 East Village
Plot N06 East Village will provide 524 new residential apartments across two high rise towers and two ten storey pavilions for client Get Living, the UK’s most experienced and progressive build-to-rent operator of large-scale residential neighbourhoods.
The structure and facades for the towers are being delivered in a partnership by PCE Ltd with Mace Tech and Oranmore Precast utilising a revolutionary, DfMA High Rise Solution (HRS) which delivers speed of construction, offsite-engineered quality and on-site safety. Mace Tech is leading the N06 delivery with support from the Australian Hickory Group to manage the deployment of patented Hickory Building Systems within the UK.
Faster, safer and more efficient
The whole ethos behind the HRS system is to build faster, safer, and more efficiently through stretching the boundaries of existing construction methods and maximining the use of offsite engineered technologies.
The N06 team of Mace Tech, PCE and Oranmore challenged itself to streamline the build sequence to produce an efficient programme and construct a complete floor level in just fifty hours over 5 consecutive working days.
Every aspect of the sequence and build combination had to be taken back to basics and thoroughly examined to eliminate waste wherever possible. Every potential efficiency was identified and analysed to produce the optimum construction sequence and cycle. The benefit of using an offsite engineered HybriDfMA system, is that it allows innovation and improvements to be tackled at an elemental level, thus allowing small changes to be made which aggregate to have a significant impact on the overall process. Simple changes such as preloading the flooring components with loose reinforcement positioned exactly where steel fixers need it, prefabricated shutters, reinforcement cages and pre-fixing edge protection prior to being lifted into place all contribute to improving site efficiency.
The 5 day cycle
- Day 1 – 22 number HRS components plus the integrated façade forming much of the 625m2 floor plate and the entire 300m2 unitised facade
- Day 2 - twin wall cores commence including solid volumetric lift core modules, shuttering, steel fixing and preparation works to the HRS flooring system in readiness for concrete pours.
- Day 3 - twin wall cores completed, prefabricated reinforcement cages placed, joints sealed and insitu concrete pours commence to the HRS floor units
- Day 4 - 16 precast columns are assembled, and the insitu concrete structural stitches between floor units are completed.
- Day 5 - 8 precast columns are assembled, 3 U shaped precast concrete components which form the core lobby areas are installed and the insitu concrete is poured in the twin wall core walls.
In addition, the 12 bathroom pods and 10 utility cupboards are placed over days 4 and 5 along with all of the Peri propping for the next level of HRS floor units. Prefabricated M&E modules also form part of the construction cycle with the main horizontal M&E distribution from the core delivered as 3 prefabricated modules which are integrated offsite into the U components which form the core lobby area. This is further complimented with the vertical MEP distribution modules which are installed every two levels within the main risers. To assist the cycle and the temporary works, PCE and Mace Tech have utilised the use of Converge Concrete sensors that monitor and predict concrete strengths giving real time information to allow the next cycle to progress as quickly as possible. Each day of the week has the same site activities carried out as the previous week, this repetition allows a production line approach where each component is delivered, offloaded, and assembled within a defined time slot.
