PCE Ltd has been selected by main contractor Galliford Try as the superstructure and façade specialist for Brent Cross Town Plot 14. Utilising its HybriDfMA build system, hyTower®, PCE will provide systemised design, offsite manufacture, and assembly of three high-rise residential blocks, up to 12 storeys high, delivering 286 Build to Rent apartments. This project is part of the larger £8bn Brent Cross Town development by Related Argent and Barnet Council.
Working with standardised components, PCE’s design team are able to configure each component so that it algins with architectural vision of Allies and Morrison and Whittam Cox. Value engineering and component optimisation allows project-specific adjustments, ensuring the structural solution meets aesthetic, structural, and sustainability targets. This creates a systemised 'kit of parts' for rapid on-site assembly and certainty of outcome. Early involvement and design coordination within PCE’s hyTower® system enable seamless integration of Plot 14’s M&E, utilities, windows, 4 different recon and brick-faced façades, and balconies, adding value to both offsite manufacture and onsite assembly.
As with all of PCE’s systemised build solutions, a series of common connection principles, or ‘smart connectivity’, and hybrid structural flexibility enable PCE’s design team to accommodate different structural materials within its solution. Doing so ensures the right product is used in the right places, with opportunities to interchange different materials and components for structural and sustainability optimisation.
For Plot 14, the hyTower® solution comprises a kit of parts of 4,500 concrete and steel components. This includes twin walls, sandwich panels, stair cores, composite structural steel reinforced concrete beams, and hollowcore.
With hyTower®, every aspect of temporary works is carefully planned to boost both speed and safety. By eliminating the need for back-propping, trades can start work on each level earlier in the assembly process. Thanks to the offsite integration of windows and façades, structures arrive on-site primed for immediate installation. This seamless approach allows construction and fit-out to happen concurrently, keeping the project moving efficiently while creating the space needed for bathroom pods and utility cupboards to be easily installed.
By factoring these considerations into early stages of design, it provides clarity, assurance, and efficiencies as the project develops. The efficiencies aid manufacturing as well as assembly, allowing a much faster, safer, and more assured structural solution.
Integration of Ynomia’s 3D digital twin technology with PCE’s Common Data Environment and digital field data capture tools provides automated real-time project visualisation from the design phase onwards. This enables efficient coordination across structural delivery, whilst extensive design information, including QA data and referencing, provides a scope of information and traceability that supports Golden Thread compliance.