Work on the landmark new £150m headquarters for Santander UK, in the business district of central Milton Keynes, is well under way. The development of this exciting, futuristic 44,000 sqm project, known as Unity Place, is led by a collaboration between developer Osborne+Co, LOM architecture and design and contractor John Sisk & Son. Scheduled to complete in 2022, LOM’s design for the eight-storey building comprises four blocks connected by three atria. It offers generous employee amenities, including a rooftop bar and running track, garden terrace, restaurant, and a health and fitness centre.
An urban workplace ecosystem
Unusually, it also integrates publicly accessible retail outlets, an urban market, community hall and conference and events centre. This invites the wider community to enjoy the space as much as Santander’s employees, making it an urban workplace ecosystem. The building is designed to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating for its environmental sustainability performance and will exceed Building Regulation requirements with a further 20 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions.
15 tonne walkways demand substantial thermal breaks
One of the many interesting features of the new Santander UK HQ are the green garden bridges, where landscaped walkways link the light-filled atria spaces to provide meeting, break out and relaxation areas. There are six of these walkways. Each essentially being an outside bridge which is thermally broken, as it connects to an enveloped, or warm structure. The prevention of thermal bridging is therefore critical at the connectivity points of these structures and with each walkway weighing around 15 tonnes, a substantial structural thermal break connectivity solution was required.
Unique and versatile
The answer was the versatile Schöck Isokorb T type S structural thermal break, which is the ideal connectivity solution for project applications involving steel-to-steel applications. There are two variants, the T type S-N for tensile force and the T type S-V for transferring compression and shear forces. It is the only approved thermal break product for steel construction that satisfies the load-bearing and thermal insulation requirements of steel design. Also, being a modular unit, it can be adapted to all profile sizes and load bearing capacity requirements – plus it can be used in both new construction and renovation projects.
All Isokorb products are fully compliant
In addition to its comprehensive range of Isokorb solutions for concrete-to-steel, concrete-to-concrete and steel-to-steel – Schöck also offers a maintenance free alternative to wrapped parapets. All products meet full compliance with the relevant UK building regulations and have the security of independent BBA Certification, which provides NHBC approval. The temperature temperature factor requirement (fRSI) used to indicate condensation risk, which for residential buildings must be equal to, or greater than, 0.75 is also easily met by incorporating the Isokorb.