Huddersfield University Student Learning and Leisure Centre (SLLC) is built on the University campus in the heart of Huddersfield town centre. The development comprises four new buildings that adjoin each other, all constructed using a single steel frame and rising to various heights from two to four storeys, with three buildings finished with a green roof. Once completed the £22.5M Centre was topped out in an unconventional ceremony led by Professor Bob Cryan, Vice Chancellor, a final sedum was plant on the finished green roof to celebrate the end of the project and a University of the Year accolade.
The Challenge
In the original plans three of the buildings were designed with an extensive green roof and the fourth designed with a traditional warm roof. The roof finish contained a variety of coloured sedums, carefully selected to suit the various aspects of the planting areas. The aim was to place a standard green roof which retains water to feed the plants, but the initial design allowed the majority of the rainfall to run-off the roof into buried SuDS tanks at ground level. Possible reduction or elimination of these tanks was welcome since these are expensive to build and maintain.
The Solution
Following consultation with ABG’s Technical Department the roof design was switched to a green roof across all four buildings. Furthermore the original design was amended to allow the roof structure to attenuate rainwater collected from the roof surface with ABG blueroof.
The decision to switch a blue roof design offered a number of key advantages to the architects. The primary advantage being that utilising the roof construction for the storage allowed the site to meet its SuDS requirements without the need to install underground attenuation tanks. Installing ABG blueroof required only minor detailing changes from the green roofs already specified; these included upgrading the thickness of the drainage layer to meet the storage requirements and the inclusion of restrictor outlet chambers to control the discharge from the roof. The simplicity of the ABG blueroof design meant that the revised roof, including the water attenuation capacity, was installed within the same time frame as originally scheduled for installing the green roofs saving the client time and money.
The ABG Service
ABG Geosynthetics provided innovative designed alternatives working with the architect, contractor and waterproofing specialist.
ABG blueroof Blue Roof System with green finish and restrictor chamber
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