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MAY 07 - SHEDDING NEW LIGHT ON INCLUSIVITY AND FLEXIBILITY



New light is being shed on flexibility and inclusiveness for community services in a major £50m regeneration project in Stoke-on-Trent.

The Bentilee Neighbourhood Centre has been built by J & S Seddon (Building) on behalf of Regenter, the equity investor and project manager, on one of Europe’s largest council estates. A joint initiative between Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Stoke-on-Trent Primary Care Trust, the new centre will bring together a broad range of services including healthcare and housing, and a local authority ‘One Stop Shop’ all under one roof. A community hall has also been created for local use.

Central to the brief for the Centre was that the building must include natural daylight as far as possible to provide flexibility within the accommodation to enable efficient adaptation to changing requirements and be as accessible as possible to the community.

The solution has been to develop a building all on one level, using steelframe and lightweight internal partitions, with 35 no 350mm diameter Glidevale Sunscoop tubular rooflights, which comprise a clear polycarbonate dome on the roof that catches daylight and reflects it down a specular tube through the roof void into the habitable areas below, without any electrical consumption.

Warren Smith, J&S Seddon (Building) project manager, elaborates, “The brief was that certain rooms were to have natural daylight. Considering the number of rooms to be included in the building, inevitably the majority do not have external walls, or are ‘rooms within rooms’ where a window is not feasible. Sunscoops enabled us to provide that natural daylight in all areas where people would be spending time- ranging from treatment rooms, administration areas to corridors.

“The Sunscoop system’s flexibility, in which a number of bends can be included along the reflective tube, further helped achieve the brief, as we could ensure the daylight is being directed exactly where required.”

Even the smallest 250mm diameter Sunscoop gives up to four times more light than a single 60W bulb without a shade on a clear summer day with direct sunlight. The largest 530mm dia Sunscoop yields over eight times the light of a single 60W bulb in those same sunny conditions, and over double the amount in the overcast conditions!

To enable tailoring of the Sunscoop to individual requirements, a range of options has been developed, including a secondary glazing skin for further thermal performance, and a light and sun deflector to maximise direct light transmission. Also available are light attenuating dampers to provide control over the light entering the room, integral light fittings that use a low energy lamp to provide night-time illumination if required, a fire protection collar and a Skyview diffuser which spreads the transmitted light over a greater area.

Glidevale’s Sunscoop can be fitted to pitched or flat roofs, and incorporates a range of roof flashings in a choice of colours to optimise ease of fitting and blending with the roof fabric. For pitched roofs there is also the option of an in-line or traditional skylight roof flashing. The Sunscoop glazing and flashings are all AA fire rated, enabling use without restriction in number, spacing, position or proximity to neighbouring buildings. Glidevale is part of the Building Product Design Group, which specializes in developing innovative yet practical roofing and ventilation products in line with changing requirements.

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