This scenario is appropriate in multistorey residential buildings.. Other general concerns when using CLT include:.

The Forge is designed as open-plan office space, with exposed services and soffit.It is also designed to be zero carbon in both construction and operation.

Our M&E design challenge was to look at the entire office environment and standardise the design of the M&E systems to deliver outstanding performance, while controlling costs and ensuring that the exposed services were aesthetically appealing as well.. Driving value in M&E building services at the Forge.Our solution was to use a small variety of repeatable elements.Across the entire project, we have minimised the variety of types and sizes of equipment and distribution modules.

This is to ensure repeatability, without compromising the performance of the building, both in terms of energy consumption and user comfort.Doing this allows us to combine efficiency of performance with economies of scale on buying, for example, larger quantities of single gauge of pipe.. For ease of installation, we use pre-wired electrical products wherever possible.

Fan and pipe modules are fabricated off-site, designed for simple connection on site.. We pre-cast a pattern of fixing points into the soffit, so that there would be no drilling into the soffit onsite – avoiding working at height, dirt, noise and the risk of drilling into the steel rebar within the concrete.

The pattern of the fixing points caters to full range of M&E service elements, according to size and purpose: some are attached to unistrut, some are on frames or drop rods, and some are fixed directly to the soffit.Bryden Wood has developed P-DfMA over many years..

It takes lessons from the manufacturing industry and applies them to construction.It is based on the understanding that comparable built assets share many common characteristics in the dimensions and requirements of their core elements – floor-to-ceiling heights, for example, or how to connect vertical and horizontal structural elements..

Similar to how flat-pack furniture uses standard parts and assembly techniques as integral elements in a wide range of products, P-DfMA designs buildings using a standardised ‘kit of parts’ that can be efficiently combined, while still producing highly customised structures.. By liberating architects from the mechanics of construction, it allows them to invest more of their time to where they can really add value – in creativity.. Optimisation as with other systems that use standardised elements, P-DfMA focused on the optimisation of each one, knowing that the multiple applications of each element will repay massively.. Optimising a standard beam so that it requires the minimum amount of steel, or reducing the depth of the floor slab to minimise the amount of concrete required, delivers substantial reductions in both carbon and cost when applied across entire sites, and even more so over multiple sites..In the true spirit of.