Case Study

Splashes Sports Centre

Rainham, Kent

 

Medway Council has invested £23m in Cozenton Park Sports Centre, the new, family-friendly facility at Bloors Lane, Rainham replacing the former Splashes sports centre.

The centre has a children’s fun pool with flume, wave ball pool, beach area, training pool for lane swimming, fitness gym and room for exercise classes and children’s parties. 

The facade package to LPS 1531 comprises A2 alumininum hook-on cassette panels and a porcelain tile ventilated facade system, SFS, insulation and fire barriers.

Willmott Dixon

The new swim and gym facility is a large, complex facility, with an ambitious goal for reducing carbon emissions, requiring good U-Values and a demanding air test to meet Medway Council’s energy savings targets. However with A²O Facades we were in good hands.

The dramatic vertical fin design would be unforgiving of anything less than perfection. Fortunately we can agree with architect Sanders Boston’s comment that the installation is ‘flawless’, with site manager Deividas’ team snag-free at handover, apart from issues related to other parties.

The success of the challenging air test was a credit to all involved.

We look forward to working with CGL and A²O again soon.

Jason Elphick
Construction Manager

Challenges

The architect designed a dramatic entrance, as well iridescent deep vertical fins, so the facades appear to constantly change as people move around the building and clouds move across the sun.

There was opportunity to collaborate with the client and offer advice on specification and detailing.

The facade had to be passive fire engineered, working with the client’s fire engineer.

The Medway coastal environment is exposed and so a particularly stringent air test was required.

The project was ambitious in its sustainability and low carbon goals.

The installers worked diligently to a snag-free approach, closing off any snagging at the end of each phase handover. 

The swim and gym programme was designed to open in early summer for optimum use.

 

Solutions

A²O met the architect’s design intentions by sourcing aluminium panels in 3 distinctive finishes from the same trusted supplier, making the facade package smooth and straightforward.

A²O put forward Value Engineering alternatives including moving from anodising to Anodite PPC.

The install was completed to Passive Fire Protection standard LPS 1531.

The building envelope achieved an air test score of 2.78, which the client was very pleased with.

Good U-Values were needed for thermal efficiency.  A²O used 2 electric scissor lifts for the install.

A²O installers achieved “zero defects” on completion, with the only snags resolved at final handover being items waiting on other parties.

A²O worked collaboratively around all challenges to meet their programme commitments.

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