Installation of 994 reconstructed stone and brick-faced precast concrete cladding elements
PCE's architectural precast façade assembly
PCE’s HybriDfMA Bespoke System Architectural Precast Concrete Façade has commenced assembly on site at the new Central & Cecil Housing Trust development in St John's Wood, London for Regal London.
The installation of 994 reconstructed stone and brick-faced precast concrete cladding elements began on-site with an anticipated construction programme of just 25 weeks. The images above show reconstructed stone spandrel and brick-faced mullion components. The 13 storey insitu concrete frame comprising 170 apartments will be clad in its entirety with the precast concrete modular façade which has enabled the removal of all external scaffolding along with the concurrent installation of the windows and building envelope. The commencement of onsite assembly followed the culmination of 10 months collaboration and co-ordination through design utilising the latest digital tools and will see 7,500m² of pre-finished façade components which were designed, manufactured and assembled within 16 months of project award.
Off-site is key to overcoming challenging site location
The challenging city centre location of this project meant that logistical planning was critical to the successful delivery of the project. With space on site at an absolute premium, PCE’s strategy to configure the minimum number of cladding components has resulted in the number of deliveries to site and the number of crane lifts in assembly being significantly reduced. Through rigorous pre-construction planning, the delivery strategy with components loaded both vertically and horizontally to feed both tower cranes from the same load, was calculated to provide the most efficient and predictable solution, offering certainty to the on-site programme.
Manufacture progressing at speed
Off-site manufacturing enables predictability in the on-site assembly programme and allows efficiencies and speed of construction to be realised whilst maintaining the superior quality that is produced in a manufacturing facility environment.
