An obvious sustainable cladding material- Brick?

Situated close to the 2012 Olympics Park, the regeneration of the three-hectare St Andrew’s hospital site continues apace. The final scheme will proves 964 contemporary new homes in a mix of affordable and family housing in designs ranging from three to 24 storeys , all set within landscaped grounds.

Community facilities such as an NHS healthcare centre, retail space, parks and public squares were all factored into the master-plan, which was undertaken in full consultation with local residents, and overall one third of the site is designated as ‘high quality public realm’.

The site was secured by the LDA, funded by the HCA, for £18million and construction work started in 2009 on the first five phases- ‘Nexus’ is now complete and fully occupied whilst 50% of phase 2 (union) has been sold by the turn of the year. Fushion, the third phase, was due to be launched to the market in early May, with planning permission for phases four and five- comprising 313 apartments- fully secured at the end of 2010 and a scheduled completion date in early 2013.

As detailed in the schemes master-plan, three urban courtyard blocks are organised around a series of public places and courtyard gardens to create a street scene, with two towers at each end of the site. Each courtyard block is open to the south to enable daylight and sunlight to enter, and has a mixture of tenures all sharing the courtyard garden.

It was decided that brick would be the external finish for most of the buildings on the basis of cost, versatility in architecture, construction and maintenance.

Diversity of the architecture was also at the centre of the design development and not just amongst the urban blocks, but also within every individual block to create differences between the buildings. Accordingly, the remaining phases of the master-plan are using brick in different combinations, colours and textures- even the 24 storey tower will be using nine different blocks.

The courtyard block is conceived as six separate party wall buildings each organised around its own staircase, lift and entrance. This is described as giving "the street scene a human scale by diversifying the frontages along the length of the block" with regular spaced front doors to individual houses, maisonettes and flats directly off the street.

Between the pavilions are generous roof gardens for duplex family units, whilst the remaining areas of the roof are planted to enhance the bio-diversity of the site.

The external facades are entirely construction from brick, build in situ, and the individual street facades are divided along the length with a change of brick combination and bond at these points. The brick layout illustrates how two colours are used on each of these sections of the elevations with one of the colours always continuing into the next combination.

Whilst brick is not always viewed as an obvious sustainable cladding material, like rainscreen cladding systems, its natural values counter this perception. Brick is produced from an abundant natural material and tends to be made and delivered locally. Brick requires very little maintenance and dissipates all its embodied energy over its life in the average buildings and offers high thermal mass.