PLP will commence construction of Phase 1 at PLP Milton Keynes in April, having been granted detailed planning consent. The first phase at PLP MK will total 1.05 million sq ft and comprise of 10 units ranging in sizes up to 308,516 sq ft. The target delivery for the first
Akela Construction Ltd, part of the Akela Group, has secured its latest in a series of contracts as part of the creation of a new neighbourhood and community in Penicuik. This new contract for Avant Homes will deliver a further 78 new homes at Mauricewood Road and follows the successful
Local architectural practice, Stephen George + Partners LLP (SGP) is launching a free interactive toolkit to introduce primary school children to the importance of building sustainably. Focusing on building materials and how much carbon is released during their manufacture, the engaging and interactive Better Buildings website is free to use
The unique steel structure covering the European Spallation Source (ESS) facility, designed by engineering consultants Buro Happold, has now been completed, marking a significant milestone of the construction works. The international research facility ESS, housing the world’s most powerful neutron source, is located in the Swedish city of Lund, and
Concrete Expo (3-4 May Excel.London) makes its debut in London this year with a comprehensive range of more than 100 concrete-related brands and product categories. It’ll be the first major dedicated trade show for the concrete supply chain for more than two years. This year there’ll be a selection of
NATIONAL framework provider Pagabo has announced the winners of its annual celebration of industry excellence ahead of the Pagabo Awards 2022. Being hosted at Pagabo’s headquarters in Hull city centre, the second iteration of the awards ceremony will take place in-person with many of the firm’s ecosystem partners in attendance.
PLP will commence construction of Phase 1 at PLP Milton Keynes in April, having been granted detailed planning consent. The first phase at PLP MK will total 1.05 million sq ft and comprise of 10 units ranging in sizes up to 308,516 sq ft. The target delivery for the first units will be in Q1 2023. The reserved matters approval launches construction of the first phase of the 135-acre site, which will be delivered within PLP’s Carbon Net Zero Commitment. PLP MK is wholly focused on providing customers with a best in a class working environment, market leading flexibility and uncompromised design. Adhering to the UK Green Building Councils Net Zero Buildings Framework. PLP’s carbon net zero (CNZ) framework combines CNZ construction with CNZ ready design, to enable future occupiers to achieve CNZ operation by utilising built-in renewable energy features and procuring appropriate renewable energy supplies. Phase 2 at PLP MK will follow Phase 1 and is available to deliver Design and Build units up to 1.15 million sq ft on 43.5 acres. PLP Milton Keynes, was acquired in 2021 by PLP’s flagship investment vehicle, the PLP UK Logistics Venture (UKLV), which is owned by majority investor Ivanhoé Cambridge alongside Peel L&P, Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) and PLP senior management. Edward Jackson at PLP, said: “Milton Keynes is a premier logistics location and will provide best in class space to our customers serving London, the South East, Midlands and beyond. We intend to speculatively develop the consented 10 buildings immediately to meet the extremely high levels of demand from local and national businesses. PLP MK is going to be a best in class working environment, raising the bar and setting a new standard for our customers and our ESG targets. We look forward to working with Winvic Construction Ltd on the Infrastructure and welcoming businesses to PLP MK.” Richard Saul at Ivanhoé Cambridge: This achievement marks a major milestone in the Business Plan for Milton Keynes. The site and its design will mean that we are delivering, alongside our partners, the very best in class park and buildings meeting the demands of our customers. Incorporating PLP’s Net Zero commitment alongside Ivanhoé Cambridge’s recently announced ESG commitments means we are delivering a logistics park for the future.” Burbage Realty, Savills and Kirby Diamond have been appointed as marketing agents for the scheme.
Akela Construction Ltd, part of the Akela Group, has secured its latest in a series of contracts as part of the creation of a new neighbourhood and community in Penicuik. This new contract for Avant Homes will deliver a further 78 new homes at Mauricewood Road and follows the successful delivery of phase one of Avant’s Carnethy Heights Development. The Company is currently providing civil engineering services to three major housebuilders – Cala Homes, Avant Homes and Bellway Homes – worth a combined contract value of £28 million, resulting in approximately 500 new homes being built in the area. Nearly a decade and half after plans were initially submitted to Midlothian Council, works commenced onsite in 2018. One of the challenges overcome by the Akela Construction team was to maintain the existing Talla Aqueduct which has been operating since 1905. Critically, the Talla Aqueduct provides the Glencorse Water Treatment Works with raw water and the treatment plant is the primary source of water for the Greater Edinburgh area. The first phases of both Cala and Avant sites are due to complete at the end of 2022, however subsequent phases will be ongoing until 2026. The development will provide 57 affordable homes with provision for electric vehicle charging facilities for future tenants. Other environmentally friendly features on this site include solar panels, air source heat pumps and value engineering methods to reduce surplus soil to landfill. Mark Markey, Akela Group Managing Director, said: “Akela Construction Ltd has a significant role to play in the delivery of the Mauricewood Road development that will provide over 500 new homes to the north Penicuik area, including much needed affordable housing. We are delighted to continue our strong working relationships with Avant Homes, Bellway Homes and CALA Homes to drive the creation of this new neighbourhood and community. “This latest contract win, to deliver an additional 78 new homes as part of the Penicuik masterplan, is a testament to the successful delivery of house building projects we have already delivered for house building clients. This builds on our ambitious plans to continue to grow this area of our business, both in Scotland and in the north of England from our Leeds base.”
Local architectural practice, Stephen George + Partners LLP (SGP) is launching a free interactive toolkit to introduce primary school children to the importance of building sustainably. Focusing on building materials and how much carbon is released during their manufacture, the engaging and interactive Better Buildings website is free to use and aims to get children at Key Stage 2 thinking about sustainability and designing low carbon buildings. Project lead Simon Matthews, a member of the Social Responsibility group at SGP takes up the story: “We decided to create a set of learning aids that teachers can use with children of about 10 or 11 years old, to help them discover more about building materials and their impact on the environment, in a fun and accessible way. Buildings have a significant impact on the environment – 11% of global carbon emissions come from the construction of buildings and the materials used. The Better Buildings programme aligns perfectly with our company values – it is imperative for us to raise awareness and put our knowledge out there for everyone to share.” Steve Malkin, founder of sustainability champions Planet Mark, adds: “”As an engineer, I would have loved a lesson in imagining and designing buildings that are great for the planet and for people. I have seen first-hand the wonderful ideas school children can bring to creating better buildings and, this exciting classroom resource gives them the ideas to fuel their imagination.” The Better Buildings resource is web based and includes investigating traditional and alternative materials used around the world, followed by a module for children to design their own low carbon building. Throughout the site, children are encouraged to explore the subjects through activities and open discussions, discovering fascinating facts and using an interactive carbon indicator to assess each material. Cartoon avatars of SGP staff help to explain common terms used throughout Simon continues: “Sustainability is everyone’s issue and everyone needs to contribute what they can. We developed the Better Building website specifically for primary school children because they are the architects of the future – and a generation that will need to face the problems we have left. We know the interest in sustainability and climate change is there from our existing schools’ sustainability campaign, SGP + You, so the earlier we can engage the better. “SGP’s Better Buildings website celebrates the positives and what people can do, reaffirming the message that people do have the ability to make changes that will have a positive impact. We hope that this resource will help teachers explain sustainability in building materials to older primary school children and ignite their enthusiasm for the subject.” The website, an open-source asset, is now available, free to all teachers. Link to the website: https://betterbuildings.stephengeorge.co.uk/
The unique steel structure covering the European Spallation Source (ESS) facility, designed by engineering consultants Buro Happold, has now been completed, marking a significant milestone of the construction works. The international research facility ESS, housing the world’s most powerful neutron source, is located in the Swedish city of Lund, and will create a pioneering multi-disciplinary research environment. At ESS, neutrons generated through spallation, will enable scientists to study materials on an atomic and molecular level. This will greatly benefit a variety of research fields such as life and environmental science, energy, materials and archaeology. The facility, designed by Henning Larsen and COBE architects, required a robust steel structure to cope with complex operational requirements and maximise flexibility during its use. Taking this into account, Buro Happold’s team of specialist engineers developed a unique structural design with large open spans to cover the Target building and associated Experimental Halls. Due to the strict design criteria placed upon the building by the regulatory authorities, the Buro Happold team ensured the steel structure could meet stringent ‘worst-case’ design conditions. This included supporting up to seven metres of snow over portions of the roof and the ability to withstand an earthquake more severe than any recorded in modern history in this area. The cantilevering roof extending up to 35 metres beyond the perimeter of the building gives the facility a memorable visual identity, whilst still catering for extreme environmental loading. The cantilevered portions withstand dynamic wind conditions and snow, but also help counterbalance the deflections in the steelwork trusses over the adjacent Experimental Halls. Four operating overhead cranes, supplied by Munck and Dematek, provide great operational flexibility to the building. The crane in the central target building meets particularly high safety standards as it is required to transport heavy components and sometimes activated material resulting from the spallation process: It can lift 115 tonnes – the weight of a Boeing 787. The building’s outer structure was designed to cope with internal forces and movement caused not only by individual cranes, but also the many loading scenarios created when all cranes are in operation simultaneously. The various operational loads from the crane, together with the complex environmental loads, resulted in more than two million possible combinations of loading scenarios. This additional design challenge necessitated an engineering approach that benefitted from computational processes. As commercially available software was incapable of this level of analysis, Buro Happold developed an in-house programme to assist the selection of the critical combinations and enable efficiency in the design process. This added yet another computational element to the support provided by the project team, complementing the façade panelisation study conducted with the façade engineering team and architects. Adam Pekala, project leader at Buro Happold explains: “The cladding of the overhanging roof is clad in L-shaped aluminium lamellas mounted onto panels. The nature of these panels prevents detrimental snow accumulation on the overhang, reducing the total load acting on the large overhangs. We used parametric modelling to define the optimum shape and layout of the panels and reduced the number of bespoke assemblies by 87%. This helped to minimise wastage by using materials and production resources in a more sustainable way, whilst enabling much faster fabrication and assembly.” Paul Roberts, project director at Buro Happold: “It has been a close collaboration with the architects and the Client right from the beginning of the project, starting with the very first hand-sketches that we worked on together. Seeing the result with this impressive structure that marks a significant milestone for ESS is truly amazing. We’re proud of our contribution to the world’s most powerful neutron source that will help address some of the most important societal challenges of our time: enabling scientific breakthroughs in research related to materials, energy, health and the environment. ESS is due to be in full operations by the end of 2027. Following the completion of the civil construction works, the facility will now continue to be prepared for research.
Concrete Expo (3-4 May Excel.London) makes its debut in London this year with a comprehensive range of more than 100 concrete-related brands and product categories. It’ll be the first major dedicated trade show for the concrete supply chain for more than two years. This year there’ll be a selection of concrete batching plant suppliers, admixtures, additives and chemicals, concrete pumps, concrete mixers, volumetric mixers, formwork, lifting and handling concrete, precast equipment and accessories, tools, testing services – in fact just about everything needed to produce, deliver and install the most widely used building material to construction sites.
NATIONAL framework provider Pagabo has announced the winners of its annual celebration of industry excellence ahead of the Pagabo Awards 2022. Being hosted at Pagabo’s headquarters in Hull city centre, the second iteration of the awards ceremony will take place in-person with many of the firm’s ecosystem partners in attendance. With twelve winners set to celebrate on the night, companies that will take home silverware include VINCI, Willmott Dixon and Faithful + Gould for their contributions to major UK development projects, as well as local projects importantly supporting local people, economies and environments. Jason Stapley, managing director at Pagabo, said: “The whole premise of the Pagabo Awards is to celebrate and recognise the projects being procured through our frameworks and carried out by our ecosystem. “There is such a wealth of amazing work being carried out across the UK through our range of frameworks it makes for a very difficult judging process. Thankfully our team of experts have an eagle eye for spotting businesses going above and beyond ordinary expectations.” While some of the projects are categorised by financial value, such as ‘Best Project Delivered Under £5m’, the awards also recognise the wider responsibility of UK industry through awards including ‘Mental Health Ambassador Award’ and ‘Best Project Delivering Social Value’. A number of projects for each of the ten categories were nominated by internal teams at Pagabo, with the overall winners being selected by the experienced senior management team. Jason continued: “It’s going to be fantastic celebrating the industry success stories that we have helped play a role in making happen through our procurement support – and to be able to do so in person. Ultimately, we help connect the most suitable businesses to each public sector project and this is testament to the internal standards that we are seeing challenged and consequently bettered in all areas of the private sector.” The full list of award winners includes: Mental Health Ambassador Award – Rob Hall, Morgan Sindall Construction Best DPS Small Works Project Under £1m – ME Construction, The Tabernacle Community Centre Best Project Delivered Under £5m – Lindum, The National Centre for Craft & Design Best Project Delivered Between £5m and £15m – R G Carter, Swallowtail Place Best Project Delivered Above £15m – VINCI, Festival Gardens Best Consultancy Project – Edge, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Best Framework Collaboration Project – Faithful + Gould, Sir Robert McAlpine and Manchester City Council, Co-op Academy Belle Vue Best Goods Project – Jigsaw24, Windsor Academy Trust Best Project Delivering Sustainability Outcomes – Willmott Dixon, Oaklands College Phase 2 Best Project Delivering Social Value – Overbury, Marches Centre of Excellence in Health and Social Care
