Two of the latest secondary schools to be built in the West Midlands make use of the latest Modus windows from Eurocell – the UK’s leading manufacturer of PVC-U windows – to achieve a distinctively contemporary aesthetic while delivering market-leading thermal performance and a significant cost-saving over aluminium.
Both single-sex schools were constructed as a design and build project by Thomas Vale Construction, which employed the Birmingham office of ADP as architects, and adopted Modus after discussions with Eurocell and the fabricator/installer, Leicester-based Unique Window Systems.
These showed that Modus slim rebate casement windows in an Anthracite Grey (RAL 7016) finish, with a smooth white interior, would achieve the same appearance as more conventional alternatives, yet together with a 25-year design life and 10-year warranty.
The two schools, Eden Girls’ School in Coventry and Eden Boys’ School in Perry Barr, Birmingham, will be Islamic free schools with 500 secondary places and 200 sixth form places. Both schools were commissioned on behalf of the Tauheedul Education Trust, which runs highly successful non-faith and Muslim faith schools.
The windows have already been installed in the girls’ school and, according to Glenn Reeves, Project Manager for Thomas Vale; they have successfully met the project brief. “The frames, glass and profile are all working well and the installation went smoothly with no delays to our construction programme,” he said.
The designs for each school are identical, including £250,000 of frames and fenestration installed. The 72 frames came in four configurations, but all the window units were unusually tall, measuring 2.4m high, but posed no challenges, as Unique was both fabricator and installer.
“We have found Modus to be very successful in taking us into both the educational and commercial sectors,” commented Sunil Patel, Managing Director of Unique. “It’s a very adaptable profile system and clients like it because it looks great, is more accessible on price than aluminium and offers reduced costs-in-use, because of its superb thermal performance.”
Featuring a unique 75mm six-chamber profile system, the Modus range delivers the optimum energy efficiency performance and can achieve a U-value as low as 0.7 from a standard system using triple-glazed units.
The Modus casement, reversible and tilt and turn windows were among the first to achieve the ‘A++’ band in England and Wales for Window Energy Ratings (WERs) since the British Fenestration Rating Council (BFRC) launched the new rating in May 2015. The ‘A++’ rating is only given to those windows an energy index value equal to or greater than +20.
Consisting of 50% post-consumer recycled PVC-U as standard, this range of doors and windows demonstrates a sustainable use of materials and has a smaller carbon footprint than products made or recycled outside of the UK. Eurocell achieves this by employing dual material extrusion technology (DMET) that layers post-consumer recycled and ‘virgin’ material simultaneously, so the recycled material is concentrated in the central core of the profiles where it cannot be seen once the door or window is installed.
The first PVC-U window and door system to offer a 12-year guarantee (on white profiles), the Modus system is available in nine solid and woodgrain effect colours, all of which are available with white internal finishes to create a light and airy living environment. A further range of more than 25 solid and woodgrain effect finishes is available to special order, including colour both sides.