BRE Visitor Centre at Ravenscraig Case Study produced by the A+DS Sust. Programme.

BRE Visitor Centre at Ravenscraig

The Visitor Centre is the first building to be built on the BRE Innovation Park at Ravenscraig. It is a high performance building in its own right.

BACKGROUND

The first BRE Innovation Park was opened in Watford in 2005 with the aim of trialling and testing new ideas from architects, developers and manufacturers before they were applied to real communities. Initially three buildings were manufactured for the event ‘Offsite05’ and were constructed on an area of car park in the centre of the BRE site. Over the seven years since its inception, a total of twelve demonstration buildings have been constructed (plus a refurbishment project) and over 60,000 people have visited.

The Innovation Park at Watford is now a low to zero carbon demonstration of innovative construction methods and technologies. It supports an educational programme, a networking and knowledge exchange hub and is a unique venue for events.

The BRE Innovation Park at Ravenscraig has similar aims but has followed a different process. From the beginning, a ‘ground-up’ approach has been adopted to make the Innovation Park not just a demonstration of innovative buildings, but an exemplar in sustainable planning and development.

APPROACH

The visitor centre has been designed to demonstrate the following:

• BREEAM Outstanding Design Stage

• Lean/Off-Site Manufacturing Process

• Green Guide to Material Specification

• Locally Sourced Materials and Suppliers

• Water Conservation

• Tackling Indoor Air Quality

• Onsite Waste Minimisation

• Low Energy/Zero Carbon

• Secured by Design

• Ongoing Post Occupancy Evaluation

The BRE Innovation Park at Ravenscraig

Exterior of the BRE Visitor Centre at Ravenscraig

BRE Visitor Centre at Ravenscraig

The BRE Visitor Centre mid-construction

Both wall and roof panels arrived prefabricated and used a crane erection process

Official opening event

Interior view of Visitor Centre

BRE Visitor Centre at Ravenscraig

CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

The traditional insitu slab foundation system was determined by the brownfield site conditions, an inverted floor design was used to enable a very high thermal performance & underfloor heating.

The manufacture of the superstructure system uses Scottish C16 Timber, and was delivered in a large format closed panel system to site, greatly speeding up the build process.

Both wall and roof panels arrived prefabricated and used a crane erection process.

RESULT

The BRE Visitor Centre is a simple form with an open plan layout. The service area is located in one corner, with toilets, kitchen and plant room. The rest of the floor plan is open to allow maximum space for seminars and events.

The structure is constructed from locally sourced timber, grown and milled in Scotland. It uses a closed panel timber system, the construction of which is zero onsite and offsite wastage. The building design, and this construction method results in low linear thermal bridging. This construction method enables a fast crane erection on site and safer assembly.

Innovative materials were used throughout the visitor centre:

• A feature internal wall was created using innovative cross-laminated timber (CLT). This was formed using layered timber sections, with the grain of each layer running perpendicular to the next. The layers are formed into a panel by treatment with resin and high pressure to bond them together;

• In order to keep the Visitor Centre at a constant temperature a ceiling panel system incorporating Phase Change Material – CoolZone, was used. This adds to the thermal mass and melts and solidifies at specific temperatures allowing it to store large amounts of energy;

• A solvent free floor was used to create a hardwearing, joint free finish. Masterop was supplied by BASF and is a elastomeric and polyurethane product;

• To improve air quality, Fermacell’s ‘Greenline’ building boards were installed as they absorb Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs);

• A Noxite roofing membrane, which uses sun, wind and rain to transform harmful nitrogen oxides into harmless nitrates, was used. This is a method of dealing with one of six greenhouse gases. The granular titanium dioxide finish is activated by UV radiation from the sun and converts nitrogen oxide (NOx) particles (carried by polluted air) into nitrates, which are then washed away by rainfall.

A feature internal wall using cross-laminated timber

Scottish C16 Timber was used

IN USE

The Visitor Centre will host a number of research projects throughout the life of the building.

Testing is ongoing on the solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, battery storage, air source heat pump, voltage optimization, building management systems, building environment sensors & the fabric.

KEY LESSONS

1. The building demonstrates that home-grown Scottish timber can be used on light commercial / industrial buildings but that mitigating measures to control overheating is required.

2. The effects of varying temperatures on exposed home-grown CLT surfaces can lead to shrinkage and opening of joint lines, consideration to be given to additional gluing.

3. Incorporation of localised structural steel for long span to be carefully considered.

BRE Visitor Centre at Ravenscraig

Internal view of the BRE Visitor Centre

View from the BRE Visitor Centre

The BRE Visitor Centre at Ravenscraig

Side elevation of the BRE Visitor Centre

Full height glazing enable visitors to look out onto the Park

Project Information

Location: BRE Innovation Park @Ravenscraig, Visitor Centre, 2 Ravenscliff Road, Motherwell, ML1 1AEClient: BRE ScotlandDate Completed: May 2012Project Value: £200,000Gross floor area: 120m2

Architect: Kraft ArchitectureCivil Engineer: URSTimber System Engineer: OSCSQuantity Surveyor: Armour AssociatesService Engineer: Summit ServicesEnergy Consultants: Building Regulations Services LtdBREEAM Assessment: BRE ScotlandMain Contractor: CCG (Scotland) Ltd

Funders: BRE Scotland / CCG (Scotland) Ltd / Edinburgh Napier University / North Lanarkshire Council

Image Credits: AG Photographic

Architecture and Design Scotland

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