click images to see a slideshow

Gebrik was specified for use at the new Mackinder and Stenton halls of residence at the University of Reading in 2009. Designed by architect Stride Treglown, this is the largest Gebrik project to be supplied in the UK to date; with Aquarian Cladding supplying over 8,000m² of the company's insulating brick cladding system in three different finishes for the 965 bed scheme.

As Reading University is home to an internationally renowned centre of excellence for innovative construction research, it was fitting that the construction of this new building should benefit from modern construction methods and materials such as Gebrik..

Restricted space on site amongst protected trees, a construction programme of 75 weeks and a desire to build to the BREEAM ‘Excellent’ standard presented the project team with a series of challenges. The cheapest option of traditional load bearing masonry was rejected because it would have added at least five months to the programme; so for reasons such as robustness, speed of build and thermal mass, a precast concrete frame with precast concrete wall and floor panels was chosen, to be clad with a 50mm layer of insulation prior to being clad with the Gebrik brick insulating system. The internal surface was painted, which meant the overall wall construction was only 260mm, yet achieved an incredibly low U value of 0.238W/m²K. Built by Morgan Sindall, their Project Director Peter Baggott said: "Gebrik has a number of advantages - particularly that the brickwork could be put up quicker and we could continue installation through the winter."

Gebrik was installed by specialist cladding contractor ECL Contracts Ltd. The external façade of each of the three new halls features prefabricated radius corners and external returns to suit the full buildings' six storey height and uses 3,300m² of Amsterdam Yellow, 3,800m² of Dark Red Sandfaced and 1000m² of Blue Brindle Smooth.

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 Reading University development.

• Client: Reading University
• Architect: Stride Treglown
• Main Contractor: Morgan Sindall
• Installation Contractor: ECL Contracts Ltd