Maple solve plant screen problem at Welsh science park

Maple used an innovative approach to install a louvred plant screen at the new Menai Science Park hub on Anglesey.

The £20m Menai Science Park (also known as M-Sparc) is a subsidiary of Bangor University and offers laboratories, office space and business support to companies. Louvred plant screens were required to protect critical machinery from dirt, pollution and weather.

A complex and time-critical build schedule required us to be on and off site as quickly as possible. So, instead of the traditional method of attaching individual lengths of louvres to a frame on site, we used a modular system when installing this plant screen.

Louvred screens for the rooftop area were created as large panels at our in-house production facility, lifted into place and clipped together on site. As a result, installation was quicker and less disruptive than the traditional method of louvre installation, and helped the project team open Wales’s first science park on time and on budget in March 2018.

The plant screens were specified by architects Faulkner Brown to protect machinery, but also to hide the equipment and not detract from what is a striking building design.

Maple has considerable experience in designing great-looking façades for building exteriors, so this was a very appropriate brief. We designed louvred plant screens that provided a high level of protection and complemented the design of the rest of the building.

A similar blend of practicality and aesthetics was required when Maple returned to site to install more than 150 interior blinds ― many of which, at high level, were electrically controlled.