Founded, in 1983, Unusual Rigging is a veteran provider of rigging and stage engineering solutions with an exceptional commitment to sustainability.
Its new headquarters building in Bugbrooke, Northamptonshire is on the cutting-edge of building design and required high performance materials to deliver on its Passivhaus standards.
The building features glulam and timber frame construction, with two rectangular wings over two storeys, linked by an atrium with a feature staircase.
Timber frame specialists Timber Innovations undertook the design, manufacture and installation of both the primary glulam frame and the prefabricated wall panels for the new headquarters. The project required non-combustible insulation, and exceptional thermal and airtightness performance were required to meet the Passivhaus standard.
Timber Innovations used Knauf Insulation’s Supafil Frame glass mineral blowing wool to insulate the panels.
Unusual Rigging wanted its new headquarters to act as an exemplar project for circular economic principles and low-carbon design. This meant creating a building from sustainable materials that can be dismantled and reused at the end of its life. Minimising the building’s in-use emissions was also a priority, leading to a Passivhaus design that achieves high levels of energy efficiency.
Timber Innovations chose its Larsen Wall System for this project for several reasons. The system is fast to build and provides cost certainty and quality control before the panels even reach the site. In isolation, the panels typically achieve a U-value of 0.11 W/m2k, making them more than suitable for this project’s target U-value of 0.14 W/m2k. Finally, the system is ideal for reducing embodied carbon, particularly compared to more traditional masonry construction.
Supafil Frame glass mineral blowing wool was Timber Innovations’ choice for the prefabricated wall panels both for its performance and sustainability credentials.
Knauf Insulation partnered with Veolia in 2017, who built a waste processing facility to supply the neighbouring St Helens factory with recycled glass. Supafil Frame is manufactured using up to 80% recycled content and the close proximity of the facility saves approximately 375,000 miles of road journeys annually to transport the material. Initiatives like this contribute to glass mineral wool having the lowest levels of embodied carbon of any mainstream insulation material manufactured in the UK.
David Himmons, Managing Director, Timber Innovations, said: “The material’s sustainability credentials mattered to us and our client Unusual Rigging, but just as important was its thermal performance. Supafil Frame was great at filling all the voids in the Larsen Wall System, ensuring we achieved an airtight, continuous and consistent layer of insulation so that there would be no cold spots on the walls.”
In total, the project used 700m2 of panels at a thickness of 235mm. Each panel was filled with Supafil Frame at a density of 35kg/m3. The product has an S1 settlement classification meaning that, once installed in the panels, it can be transported to site without affecting performance.
Thanks to a combination of high thermal efficiency and low and zero carbon technologies, the Unusual Rigging Headquarters building has achieved an A+ EPC rating, meaning it produces more energy than it consumes.
The ‘true cost’ of every component and process involved in the construction was considered to minimise the social and environmental impact, while the fabric achieved the Passivhaus standard. Timber Innovation’s met were able to meet the ambitious vision for this building thanks in no small part to the use of Supafil Frame.
