The Sustainable Building Centre (SBC) just opened by builders merchant giant Wolseley heavily features timber and engineered wood.
The SBC is designed to showcase the company’s 7,000-strong ‘green’ building products range and, said Wolseley UK managing director Nigel Sibley is a “solid statement” of its “intent to help make the UK building industry more sustainable”.
The 6,800ft2 building in Leamington Spa cost £3.2m and features a total of 170 different products in its fabric.
Half the building is timber frame, featuring open panel wall construction based on Finnforest FJI I-joists, 0.7 U-value Jeld-Wen wood-framed treble-glazed windows and French doors, thermowood cladding and decking, and I-joist framed floor and roof cassettes.
Prefabricated concrete panels make up the core structure of the other half of the centre, but the roof comprises Finnforest Kerto LVL beams and deck supported by a four-layer Kerto edge beam and the south face is a glulam-framed glazed curtain wall from Seufert-Niklaus.
The SBC will be used as a test bed for all the different products and a range of ‘renewables’ systems, including a ground source heat pump, biofuel boiler and solar thermal and PV panels. It will also host guided tours for customers and sustainable construction seminars and other events.
The next edition of TTJ’s sister title Timber Building will include a feature article on the SBC.
