Maple’s work at the Solihull Energy Centre represents a significant milestone in the expansion of our services. Alongside providing our core products, we will also be installing roofing and glazing, marking our first full-envelope project.
The energy centre is a key part of Solihull’s Energy Network, a new sustainability initiative by the local council to provide a sustainable energy resource to town centre buildings. Energy will be generated at the new facility and distributed to the local community via an underground network of pipes and cables.
Maple’s scope of work involves rainscreen cladding, louvres, perforated panels, vertical fins and glazing, all of which will contribute to achieving both practical and aesthetic effects.
The rainscreen cladding will feature on the north and south elevations of the centre in both vertical and horizontal orientations. It will be coated in a pebble-grey shade to match the perforated panels, fins and louvre systems.
Continuum® panels will provide an attractive architectural feature by projecting a bespoke image of woodland trees using perforation holes of three different sizes. A similar example of this can be seen at the National Digital Exploitation Centre where we were able to mimic the surrounding Welsh landscape using perforated panels.
Over 100 large Vector® fins will be installed directly to the building, some of which to the curtain wall system on the southwest elevation that we will be installing as a company first.
Maple will also supply and install two louvre systems. Both systems will be instrumental in regulating air quality and providing screening for the energy centre’s important machinery. Contour® VL ventilation louvres offer a variety of pitch options, allowing for different airflow and free area requirements, while Contour® AL acoustic louvres feature sound-absorbing mineral wool which will help reduce noise disruption for local residents.
At Maple, we are continually finding new ways to evolve and improve our services, therefore Solihull Energy Centre marks a very exciting milestone that we look forward to collaborating on.