Car Park, Bolton Town Centre

Client: NCP
Architect: Ingleton Wood
Type of works: supply of the Kingspan Micro-Rib and the Benchmark Ceramic Granite facade system from Kingspan Insulated Panels.

A new 794-space, multi-storey NCP car park in Bolton Town Centre utilises Kingspan Insulated Panels to create colour interest and deliver a reduced carbon footprint.

The £6.7m four-storey development from NCP is part of the overall strategic plan for the city, which sees convenient and accessible parking as the key to Bolton’s vitality and economic success.

Significant efforts to break up the scale and mass of the car park and to replicate the urban grain of the area were made in the car park’s design, by Architects Ingleton Wood. Kingspan Micro-Rib and the Benchmark Ceramic Granite facade system were used to create a dynamic lightweight facade, anchored by solid plinths and stair towers.

Alan Dunsmore, Associate at Ingleton Wood, commented: “Delivering a high-quality building was critical to moving this regeneration forward. The size of the panels was important, as they coordinated with the building’s structural frame dimensions and could be fixed directly to the structure without the need for a supporting sub-frame, which considerably speeded the erection of the car park.”

“The quality of the internal face of the panels was also a factor, because we used this face as the internal finish; and Micro-Rib’s consistency of detailing gave us the clean and clear internal finish we intended. We also liked the choice of colours and arranged the Micro-Rib panels for the facade in a random chequer-board fashion, in shades of grey, which provided a strikingly contemporary feature.”

“We achieved a high quality stone finish to accent the vertical elements within the design, by using Ceramic Granite to echo the slate on the walls and roofs in the surrounding conservation area. By using a combination of these two panels we engrained the building into its surrounding context and created the desired effect.”

Kingspan’s insulated panel systems offer designers a comprehensive range of aesthetic wall solutions in cover widths from 600 - 1,000mm in 1mm increments, making them ideally suitable for incorporating into buildings where visual impact is a key requirement. The single component, pre-engineered panels require only a single fix and thus reduce build time. With no cavities, gaps, cold bridges or interstitial condensation risk, the panels offer low air leakage of 5m³/hr/m² or better and reliable thermal performance.

The majority of Kingspan products have an ECOsafe insulation core, containing no CFC’s or HCFC’s with a low Global Warming Potential, achieve an “A” or “A+” rating according to the Green Guide to Specification and are available in FIREsafe LPCB insurer-approved form for assured fire performance. They are also fibre-free, removing the risk of loose fibres being released and causing irritation.