Education

A sustainable learning environment has been created at Stockport College with help from construction techniques developed by McVeigh Insulations.

The new Sir Joseph Whitworth building at the college is a central element of a £24 million investment in construction and engineering workshops, providing specialist accommodation for skills such as brickwork, construction, and plumbing.

To help create the main structure, McVeigh Insulations, specialist structural insulated panels (SIPs) fabricator, worked closely with architects Austin Smith Lord and main contractor Wates Construction, to devise a building that complied with all appropriate Building Regulations, achieved a BREEAM ‘very good’ rating, and could be built efficiently in the confined site adjacent to the existing college buildings and abutting the A6 trunk road.

McVeigh factory fabricated approximately 1500m2 of its 150mm SIPs, and installed them using its ‘tight fix’ system, whereby a roof-mounted crane hoists each panel to the appropriate floor level on the steel structure, to be securely fixed into position from the inside.

McVeigh can produce SIPs with a U-value as low as 0.1W/m2k, complete with window and door penetrations and without additional secondary reinforcement.

www.sips.org.uk