Bramall Music Building features in Building Magazine 17.02.12

Techrete supplied the brick faced precast cladding to the recently completed Bramall Music Building. Below is an extract from Building Magazine 17.02.2012

This 450 seat auditorium is large and windowless, so BAM used precast panels. This provided a smooth surface for the oak boarding used to finish the interior. Precast concrete panels were faced with brick and fixed to the steel frame. The specially made bricks were sent to a specialist to be cut into slips, then on to Techrete ready for fixing to the concrete panel.

The specialists in Techrete’s Brigg factory succeeded in creating exactly the same finish as the bricklayer on site who was up on scaffolding.

Precast panels were used for the inside skin of the auditorium walls rather than 300mm thick blockwork. Our panels, 180mm thick, offer the same acoustic performance and the smooth surface meant the oak strips used in the interior finish were quicker to fit, as there are fewer gaps to fill behind them – an acoustics requirement.

BAM acknowledged that this solution saved 12 weeks on the programme. “Going for precast was our finest hour” according to BAM