Assembly Building B - PCE

Project Details

Project - Assembly Building B

Sector - Commercial

Technology - Concrete

Company - PCE

Project Overview:

PCE Ltd has designed, manufactured and constructed a 14 storey HybriDfMA office building using offsite manufactured structural steel and precast concrete components together with in-situ reinforced concrete, forming the PCE Hybrid Frame System. The HybriDfMA framed building provides 92,000 sq. ft. of office space utilising PCE’s  experience of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), Offsite engineering and providing as much Offsite construction as possible in a very busy city centre location.

Assembly Building C is a prestige HybriDfMA framed office building. The Hybrid design mentality has enabled PCE to think 'outside of the box' to incorporate new ideas providing a 'Kit of Parts', that enables the creation of visually appealing structures like Building C, and the ability to merge precast concrete and steel into a design that provides a building that can be built faster, safer, and more efficiently and is evident in the attention to detail through the design process. Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) are captured in their infancy through the design stage to ensure that as much offsite precast concrete manufacturing can be incorporated and ready for  manufacturing and delivery.

The project pulled together exposed architectural precast concrete sandwich panels that are part of the main core to the north of the building with precast concrete  elements including precast concrete twin and solid walls where attention is being paid to the requirement that the building is to have exposed, unpainted finished  concrete. The design of the architectural panels was very high on the city planners’ radar, where attention to detail in design was required to ensure a stunning, visual building, complementary to the Bristol skyline. A total of 44 architectural sandwich panels, and over 400 precast concrete twin and solid walls were manufactured at various factories throughout the UK along with over 1000 hollowcore units.

The high specification was achieved with collaboration and communication with the suppliers to ensure the project had minimal finishing works on site. A large investment was made by PCE in the design stage to ensure the structure was erected with a just in time philosophy with precast lifted off in sequence straight from the lorry directly into  position. In addition to the structure we are also providing a modular riser wall system to enclose theoretical risers. This innovative solution provides a fire rated enclosure which is constructed progressively with the frame construction from a modular panel system.