A first-class PCE HybriDfMA Frame system office building
“Good buildings come from good people, and all problems are solved by good design” – Stephen Gardiner.
This quote was written during Queen Mary I’s reign by the then Lord Chancellor Stephen Gardiner, and it feels just as befitting now for the PCE Assembly C project, as it was first nearly five hundred years ago.
PCE has successfully delivered their HybriDfMA Frames system for the structural frame of the building that will provide 92,000 sq. ft. of office space in the centre of Bristol.
Rigorous design procedures and high quality controlled offsite manufacture of the 44 architectural and sandwich panels, 200 tonnes of steel columns, 440 twin and solid walls, over 1,000 hollowcore floor units, and 249 composite steel Deltabeams was essential, and every individual component was delivered to site to a carefully planned ‘just in time’ sequence.
The challenges of a congested city centre site
Over 9,000m² of insitu reinforced concrete was also used for the composite concrete/structural steel beams and structural topping. All were assembled at the congested city centre site by PCE’s in house multi-skilled workforce resulting in a showcase of a first-class PCE HybriDfMA Frame system office building.
The entire project and the journey was a testament to the detailed planning and endeavours of the entire PCE team throughout all the processes required, and benefitted from the increasing use of digital information controls that the company is continuously developing.
Complications were inevitable and from them valuable lessons were learnt, new approaches developed, enabling PCE to continue its desire in pushing well beyond the normalities of Modern Methods of Construction, honing project delivery, logistics and onsite efficiencies, to name but a few.
Darren Waller PCE’s Senior Project Manager responsible for the project commented:
“Success can be measured not only in completing our part of the overall the project, but also in surmounting the challenges that the PCE project team overcame in the logistics, planned just-in-time deliveries and frame assembly, all of which have resulted to continuous improvement learning in the company’s HybridDfMA processes.
“There is no such thing as a failure within PCE, just opportunities to grow, learn and improve for future projects. It has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to have worked on this project with such a great PCE team, as well as the incredible support provided by the client, main contractor, project consultants and our supply chain.”
So, PCE is proud to have completed and attended the topping out (which is an ancient Scandinavian religious rite to celebrate the completion of a structure) with client Bell Hammer and representatives from AXA, Main Contractor Galliford Try, Project Architect AHMM, and Consulting Engineers ARUP.
“Good buildings come from good people, and all problems are solved by a team’s determination to succeed” – with acknowledgement to Stephen Gardiner.
