Julian Venus, Business Development Director at respected Aquarian Cladding Systems, discusses this year's successful Offsite Expo 2022.
As one of the most technically advanced events in the construction calendar, September's Offsite Expo was another triumph for organisers – and for Aquarian Cladding it was another extremely valuable experience.
We were able to meet people from right across the entire sector and gain important insight into how the industry is thinking.
It was noticeable there was a large brick presence at the Expo and one thing that was apparent was there is still a huge desire for a brick finish and a trend for brick cladding options as people are moving away from conventional hand laid brickwork.
The brick market is vast, with 2.1billion bricks used every year in the UK, but with increased demand there is just not enough bricks available, forcing people to look at other options. And with the increasing demand for residential properties that conventional methods of construction can't keep up with, the Offsite market continues to grow, hand in hand with brick cladding as the most viable solution.
The star of the show from an Aquarian Cladding perspective was Gebrik, our innovative insulated brick cladding system manufactured under factory-controlled conditions. Delegates were impressed with the physical samples of Gebrik and they were surprised by the scale of the panel on our stand.
Another hot topic of conversation was thermal performance, particularly with spiralling energy costs so it was great to be able to demonstrate the benefit of Gebrik, when used with a variety of different framing solutions. In particular Gebrik with a SIP panel and insulation was achieving u-values of 0.1 W/m2K with a 334mm total wall build up, inside to out. With the full sized panels on the stand it was great that we could physically show how Gebrik works with different options.
One of the big talking points across the two days was Environmental Product Declarations (EPD), which are now being asked for in relation to architects specifying products and clearly as an Industry there is a lot of work going in this area as we all seek to reduce carbon and increase water efficiency.
There was also a growing interest in panelised solutions, bridging the gap between pre-cast concrete and completely offsite, with many innovative solutions coming to market. It's exciting for the Offsite Sector to see new products and ideas being demonstrated and discussed during the two days, and collaboration is clearly one of the driving forces within Offsite.
When people think of modular construction they think of building the modules in a factory and then delivering them, then stacking them on top of each other on site. Now with some of the panelised solutions you can transport side and back panels on a vehicle and then bring them together on site. A panelised solution means you need less factory space to produce as well but as with all the construction solutions available, it's imperative to understand fully the Project requirements to ensure the correct brick cladding solution is chosen, that's where we come in as Aquarian.
Elsewhere, we were delighted to sponsor the Best Use of Hybrid Technology award at the Offsite Awards, held as part of the two-day Expo, and congratulations to Bowmer + Kirkland & Innovare for winning with Thames Park School in Grays, Essex. All credit to the Radar team for putting on another professional exhibition and a real punchy awards ceremony, and we are already looking forward to next year.
As key distributors of Gebrik, MechSlip and NaturAL-X, Aquarian Cladding Systems is one of the UK's leading suppliers of brick cladding systems. Working with architects, contractors, developers and installation specialists, Aquarian's cladding systems have been used on many award-winning buildings across a wide range of sectors. For more information, call 0808 223 9080, or email info@aquariancladding.co.uk.
