The Co-operative’s new £100m head office in Manchester, due for completion in Summer 2012, is designed to set a new benchmark for sustainable design in commercial buildings.
The low-energy, highly-sustainable building will have a BREEAM rating of “Outstanding”, and bring together 12 Co-operative businesses whose premises are currently spread over eight separate buildings.
Among its array of sustainable technologies and approaches, the 500,000 sq ft headquarters is being equipped with offsite-manufactured risers carrying the vital building services that will bring the building to life.
The offsite fabricated steel structures, designed and built by Pipe Center’s Modular Engineering business for contractor Rotary North West Ltd, have a smaller carbon footprint and generate significantly less material waste than the traditional approach of onsite assembly.
The riser structures that contain and support the building’s vertical pipe work are built and tested in pristine factory conditions before being transported to site and connected up.
This enables very high quality workmanship and precision, minimising materials wastage and guaranteeing the system works first time.
The approach reduces pollution and congestion on the roads, since a single delivery by one supplier replaces dozens of deliveries by individual suppliers transporting separate components and materials to site.
It also significantly reduces the risk of accidents, as the work of constructing the risers is carried out in controlled factory conditions rather than onsite in often-difficult and cramped conditions.
Keith Fisher, Project Director for Rotary North West Ltd, says: “The offsite approach contributes to the outstanding sustainable credentials of the building. It cuts carbon, reduces waste, minimises pollution and congestion, and significantly cuts the risk of accidents on site.”
He adds: “While it requires more time upfront in terms of the design to ensure accuracy, it saves substantial time onsite – taking only between 15 to 20 per cent of the time normally associated with traditional onsite installation.”
The other major advantage of offsite fabrication, he says, is build logistics and space-saving onsite.
“The new building is in the heart of Manchester and space is inevitably restricted. Building the risers offsite means that we effectively have a finished product delivered for installation in a single drop. It overcomes the need to store materials and components onsite pending installation. The key is sequencing completion and delivery of offsite structures to coincide with the installation window.”
Once the risers are delivered to site, they are threaded through the building into position and connected up. Each module covers one storey of the 15-storey building, with several hundred required in total.
The piped services in the risers include chilled water, hot water for heating, domestic hot and cold water plus electrical containment systems.
Keith Fisher says: “The key to delivering a successful offsite solution is accurate, timely sharing of information. It is vital to ensure the fabricator, in this case Pipe Centre’s Modular Engineering, has the information required to take account of all issues in the design and that any problems are ironed out in advance.
“It requires regular, detailed meetings and a clear sign off process. As a result of this close collaboration we have developed excellent working relationship with the Pipe Centre Modular Engineering team.”
Bob Hughes, who heads up Pipe Center’s Modular Engineering, says: “The Co-operative headquarters project is an outstanding example of how the offsite approach can be harnessed. It supports and contributes to the exceptional sustainability credentials of the building, with benefits for the client, contractor and the environment.”
Main contractor on the project is BAM Construct UK, which specialises in sustainable construction.