Bespoke offsite concrete for time sensitive education schemes

Creagh Concrete is a key supplier to the education market with a range of offsite concrete products for school, academy and university projects. The fast track advantages of Creagh’s offsite build systems and precast components can meet the needs of time sensitive education schemes.

Concrete’s inherent properties are ideally suited to the education sector, its reputation for durability offers important savings in repair and maintenance within the school environment. Further whole of life savings can be attributed to concrete’s thermal mass which is acknowledged to be a valuable solution to the problem of overheating and its associated cooling costs.

Creagh can supply a wide variety of external finishes bringing design freedom that challenges other offsite building systems whilst details such as solid floors and insulated walls deliver concrete’s acoustic benefits and contribute to a buildings fire safety.

Here are a few examples of Creagh’s education projects:

Constructing the largest redevelopment at London School of Economics

This project for London School of Economics (LSE) involved the construction of a state of the art flexible and highly sustainable academic and teaching building, designed by renowned architects Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners.  It also included a new public square at the campus for LSE’s largest ever redevelopment.

Creagh’s scope of work involved the supply and installation of 13 stories of hollowcore flooring, grouting and structural topping for the building. Collaboration was key throughout this build due to the confined inner-city site and complexity of the requirements, which contributed to the success of the project.

Toronto Primary School

A new purpose built extension was added to Toronto Primary school, comprising a monolithic textured precast concrete games hall that opens up to the school playing fields.  Creagh manufactured the textured concrete band which is punctured only at high level by way of a sandblasted pattern across Reglit apertures, conveying the pattern of the surrounding tree lined avenue.  The concrete wraps the entire base of the extension. Creagh also created a prominent internal feature wall panel for the reception area with both recessed and protruding lettering showing a bespoke design incorporating words chosen by the primary school pupils.

University of Greenwich

McLaren Group turned to Creagh when tasked with the build of a new student accommodation for University of Greenwich. The project comprises 3 multi-storey buildings housing 358 residents, all built with a precast concrete frame.

Precast concrete was the obvious choice on this project. It is speed of construction that underlines the attractiveness of using precast concrete systems as a framing material. Units are manufactured offsite ensuring the desired quality is met and leads to reduction of trades required onsite.

Creagh were responsible for the design, manufacture, delivery and installation of all members of the precast concrete frame including precast columns and beams, hollowcore flooring, walls, lift shafts and precast stairs and landings.

University of Ulster (Belfast Campus)

Creagh installed 25,000 square metres of hollowcore flooring in the new Belfast campus building at University of Ulster.  Two hundred tons of concrete beams were also installed by Creagh with the largest beam being a massive 19.5m long and 38 tonnes!

Concrete backing to UClan

University of Central Lancashire (UClan) are working on the first stage of a £200 million transformation of their Preston Campus with the successful completion of a new engineering innovation centre.

Creagh are providing a concrete backing to the £30 million building by manufacturing and installing two 30-metre-tall precast concrete cores, 6000m² of prestressed flooring and 21 sets of precast concrete stairs including one feature staircase behind its glass cladding.  By using our products on this job, construction giant BAM were able to shave weeks off the construction programme.

Creagh’s offsite construction the perfect fit for Roehampton Library

The new world-class University of Roehampton Library is a 70,000 square foot, five-storey building, housing 350,000 books and 1,060 study spaces. The build was manufactured offsite using Creaghs fast track build system and precast components.

The £34 million, state of the art building was built in the heart of Digby Stuart College, in the centre of the campus. Creagh were responsible for the design, manufacture, delivery and installation of all members of the precast architecturally exposed concrete frame with single and double height columns, plate flooring, precast beams and precast stairs. The facade is a lightweight steel frame system with weatherproof boarding and an outer precast brick-clad skin.

It is speed of construction that underlines the attractiveness of using precast concrete systems as a framing material. The amount of repetition suited the process, the project and the site. The cores were erected in five weeks and the frame took 13 weeks to install. The external cladding took another 10 weeks to complete.

Providing the solution for new student accommodation at St Andrews

This prestigious establishment chose Creagh for the first stage of their £70 million investment in student accommodation plans for the university. The first stage of the investment called for two new accommodation buildings for the campus. The new buildings called Powell Hall and Whitehorn Hall respectively created 389 new bedrooms for the university.

Creagh provided architectural concrete cladding for the buildings including feature walls with etched lettering. 695 GFRC concrete pieces were installed across the buildings. Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete or GFRC (also known as GRC) is a type of fibre-reinforced concrete. GRC consists of high-strength glass fibres embedded in a concrete matrix. Both fibres and matrix offer a synergistic combination of properties that cannot be achieved with either of the components acting alone. The fibres provide reinforcement for the matrix, increasing its tensile strength, limiting the shrinkage and creep processes as well as eliminating curing cracking appearance.

Creagh developed a project-specific GRC mix to match both the structural performance and aesthetics requirements. This allowed the installation of floor to floor panels with 25mm concrete skin and no steel rebar. They rose to the challenge of precise filigree moulding and different casting techniques that were required for the architectural concrete cladding panels. Among the benefits of GRC: it’s reduction in thickness provides an increased cavity and/or insulation allowance and a smaller loading to the façade. All of which significatively reduce the buildings carbon footprint whilst providing the same durability and resilience as traditional concrete.

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