The Meadway Extra Care Housing Scheme designed by Calford Seadon architects and contracted by Willmott Dixon Housing is a 4 storey facility consisting of 87 apartments. Using KingBuild System offered the client a 25% reduction in overall build programme relative to traditional builds.

The project required large open plan areas at ground floor, aesthetic design and a quick turnaround reducing the latent period on return on investment.

The project incorporated a complex curved timber truss roof supported off the cold rolled panels. Integration of this feature required early involvement and design collaboration with the timber designers to ensure that a working design solution between the two products was achieved with minimal work required on-site. In order to realise these efficiencies the Kingspan project team worked closely with all other parties right from the pre-design stage.

To avoid the need for large downstands and suspended ceiling voids, each of the floor cassettes required specifically located pre-punched service holes to allow ventilation and air conditioning pipes through the cassettes. Walls were also pre-punched with service holes within the panels to allow for cabling and pipework to pass through in the required locations.

The external wall panels were factory-fitted with a sheathing board, insulation and ‘helping hand’ brackets or brick tie channels to accommodate the various external façades. Additionally, all the studs were set out to the requirements of the various façades facilitating a quick and easy installation. Similarly, all of the internal studs were set out to allow quick installation of drylining without the need for additional studwork.

The final result of the project was the supply of a load bearing structure fitted with Hardie board, 70mm Kingspan insulation and Kingspan helping hand bracket/brick tie channels ready for service integration and finishes in 13 weeks.

Development Name: Meadway Extra Care Housing Scheme
Client: Housing 21
Architect: Calford Seadon Partnership
Main Contractor: Wilmott Dixon Housing
Engineer: Gemma Building & Design Services Ltd