Maple have completed the installation of a louvred plant-screening system for the new Skills and Innovation Centre at Stafford College.
It’s the first stage in a prestigious project that showcases Maple’s own skills and innovation.
As well as the plant screen, we’re supplying and installing a huge vertical fin façade. Work is due to start on site again in November, and Maple project manager Bob McMann says he can’t wait.
“Now and again, you get a project that requires all our skills, experience and attention to detail to help bring an architect’s vision to reality,” he said. “Here we’re using modular construction to make installation more efficient, as well as some advanced fixing brackets.”
For one part of the three-storey façade, fins will be pre-assembled off-site into modular sections. Elsewhere, individual fins will be fixed to the curtain walling with our specialist brackets. In another innovation, we’re using woodgrain-effect powder-coating on aluminium to mimic timber (timber being too heavy for the length of span required).
As well as stretching vertically, the timber-effect fins will also form a ‘roof’ across a large, curved façade, which has been designed to be a major visual feature of the new £28m college building. Similar fins will be used to screen a rooftop sub-station from view.
When complete in 2023, the Skills and Innovation Centre will provide modern construction, engineering and motor vehicle facilities, along with a four-court sports hall, gym and 300-seat auditorium.
