Bangor University student accommodation

REHAU POLYTEC 50S curtain walling in stylish university project

The innovative REHAU Polytec 50 composite curtain walling system is an integral part of the design scheme at the new £30m St Mary’s Student Village built at Bangor University in North Wales.

23 REHAU Polytec 50 screens, at heights of up to 11.3m, have been installed in new student accommodation blocks by specialist fabricators Per-Fit Windows, based in Heywood.

Per-Fit worked alongside main contractors Vinci Construction on the project, which also involved the sympathetic refurbishment of the existing quadrangle and ‘1906’ buildings to create a new village square environment for the 600 or so students living at the site.

Per-Fit were awarded the contract based on their previous experience on similar large scale commercial projects, and worked closely with both REHAU and Vinci to put together a detailed fenestration specification which met the cost, efficiency and security criteria of the university.

REHAU Polytec 50, recently successfully tested to CWCT standards for performance, was preferred to aluminium curtain walling primarily because it was more cost effective, with no compromise on the aesthetics of the finished buildings, but also because it offered better thermal performance and, with a PVC internal face, was warmer to the touch for students.

The twenty three separate screens are up to 4.1m wide and 11.3m high and are all double glazed, achieving a U-Value of 1.54W/m²K. (REHAU Polytec has been Passivhaus certified by the Passivhaus Institute and can achieve a U_cw rating of <0.8 W/m²K.)  Many have been installed in stairwells and entrances and these incorporate aluminium entrance doors complete with electronic entry systems.  They have been coloured in a smooth anthracite grey on the exterior and are white on the interior.

As well as the curtain walling, Per-Fit also fabricated and installed more than 1100 windows for St Mary’s Village in the REHAU TOTAL70 PVC-U system with 6mm toughened Coolite ST150 glazing, providing a g-value of just 0.41.  These were used throughout the original buildings as well as on the new build blocks, giving the development a coherent overall look and successfully helping to blend the old with the new.  Secured by Design principles were also followed throughout.

REHAU demonstrated its #knowhau commercial support service on the project, helping Per-Fit from the outset with factory and on-site training sessions, strength and performance calculations and a CAD drawing service.

Per-Fit themselves were congratulated by Vinci at the end of the project on the way they had managed the 12 month programme, bringing it in on time even in the face of many early delays and lots of accessibility constraints for their installation team.

The architects on the project were FaulknerBrowns and the project leaders were Cityheart Ltd.