Southend Launchpad
We were appointed by main contractor Morgan Sindall to carry out the full mechanical, electrical and plumbing packages at the new Southend Launchpad project, in Southend-On-Sea, Essex.
The 3-storey development sits at the entrance to Southend Airport Business Park and has been created to champion innovation in the area for start-up businesses and SME’s. The building contains a mix of offices, workshops, research facilities and break out spaces, along with a café and seminar space. The scheme has been designed to achieve BREEAM Outstanding and will be highly energy efficient in its contribution towards the Government’s net zero targets from sustainable construction.
Our work included the installation of roof mounted air handling plant to provide conditioned air to the building, along with a hybrid VRF arrangement which heats and cools the individual spaces. The systems are all controlled via a sophisticated central BMS system. The electrical installation comprises an intelligent lighting control system, underfloor power, fire alarms, security and data systems. Externally, Southend Launchpad benefits from a photovoltaic installation and several electric car charging points.
The overall design is centred around the structure, services and finishes all being exposed to view, which includes the main concrete shell. Due to this, the co-ordination and setting out of the services was critical to the finished appearance of the development. To assist, we developed the M&E design to level 2 BIM and produced fully co-ordinated working drawings. By doing so, we were able to provide accurate builderswork drawings including aperture locations in the structures and walls for our services. The final as-installed model included all Cobie information as required in the BIM Execution Plan.