ECL Contracts Install Rainscreen Cladding to Sony Ericsson £60M R & D Facility, UK

The Ericsson building is a £60 million office/research and development centre for Sony Ericsson, the telecoms company, who relocated their Beeston site in Nottingham to Ansty in Coventry.

The former airfield, which is being re-developed to form the Ansty Business Park, has a predicted development cost of £300 million.  The first phase of this project is the construction of 136,800 sq ft of office accommodation.

The Ericsson buildings provide office space and Ericsson’s largest UK Research and Development Facility.  The Site is also home to a separate energy centre containing a Biomass Boiler providing 50% of the energy requirements for the development, by using fuel from renewable sources.

ECL installed cladding to the whole of the external façade which involved a combination of rainscreen materials including Larch and Douglas Fir together with a secret fixed cladding on a variety of support structures.  The infill structure, also installed by ECL, was lightweight steel framing.  The plant-rooms on the roof were clad in composite insulated panels.

The main contractor was Bowmer and Kirkland, who have worked with ECL on numerous projects.  The project also received a visit from Prime Minister Gordon Brown who visited as part of his on-going ‘Listening Tour’.