click images to see a slideshow

A new apartment building, designed by architect Stride Treglown for Unite's new ‘Livocity’ brand, has been clad in Aquarian Cladding's Gebrik Insulating Brick Cladding System.

As pioneers of a new style of urban living, Unite launched its Livocity concept in London, specifically designed to provide graduates and young professionals with a range of affordable, fully furnished, contemporary accommodation to rent. One of a number of planned sites across the city, the company completed its first Livocity building in Camden in March 09. Built using off-site, volumetric, modular construction methods, the development provides 38 high specification studio apartments.

Associate at Stride Treglown, Marco Oliveira, chose Gebrik in response to a very specific brief: "The client gave us an ambitious brief to develop, build and complete a scheme within eight months from commencement of enabling works on the site. This was to be achieved by aiming for 80% of the total constructed building to be from offsite prefabrication methods. Gebrik provided a perfect solution for the challenging timeline outlined in the brief".

"Upon reviewing previous installation examples of Gebrik within Europe and the UK, it was clear to us that the product was a near perfect alternative to traditional brickwork, with the system's speed and flexibility key criteria to meet our intense building programme".

The scheme was developed using a series of prefabricated, modular studio apartment pods, which were erected and stacked one on top of the other to form the main structure; this provided a blank canvas for the Gebrik cladding to envelop the structure with a brick skin. The wide range of brick slips available meant that a satisfactory brick match to the adjacent buildings was easily achieved. The Gebrik system provided many critical enhancements to the scheme. The speed of erection delivered cost savings, whilst the flexibility of fixing the panels meant that reduced structural support was required for the large openings, windows and doors.

Even though the construction phase coincided with the start of the winter months, the adverse weather conditions did not affect the cladding erection programme - as would probably have been the case with traditional brickwork.

The build programme allowed for a period of just eight weeks, during which the cladding material could be installed. The first load of Gebrik was delivered mid December 2008, with the building completed on time for client occupation by the end of February 2009.

Marco concluded: "This was my first project using the Gebrik product. I was very impressed with the ease, effectiveness and flexibility of the system to such a degree that we are currently re-specifying the system on a number of other projects".

Please click on any of the images on the right to view a slideshow showing aspects of the application and results of Gebrik used at the Camden development. A pdf case study detailing the whole development can be viewed & downloaded from the ‘Resource’ area on the far right.

• Client: Unite
• Architect: Stride Treglown
• Main Contractor: R G Group
• Cladding Contractor: E J Horrocks Ltd