THE 117-bed Ramada Hotel in Barnsley was constructed in just 121/2 weeks, using Structherm's Fastbuild(tm) precast concrete system. The building consists of direct decoration party wall and preformed window panels, with solid concrete double-spanning floor beams over two rooms to aid speed of installation. The precast concrete wall panels were designed as deep-beam walls to allow load transfer to the outer edges of the walls, thus concentrating load down the columns and reducing the depth of the support steel.

The use of Cobiax slabs, without downstand beams, for Newcastle College's Lifestyle Academy enabled overall floor-to-floor height to be significantly lowered relative to normal steelframe slabs. In turn this minimised cladding costs and cut programme time, as the Cobiax slabs needed no further work. The Academy provides a new facility for Newcastle College departments, including: hair and beauty; sports and fitness; food and hospitality; and travel and tourism.

The two-storey £8.3 million John Perryn primary school in Ealing replaces a Victorian school, that while still in use, was partly demolished to give some space for the new building. Precast concrete was chosen for its fire resistance, flexibility, high quality (eliminating finishing trades) and instant working platform. Buchan Concrete Solutions developed a bespoke
design and the precast concrete frame was erected in just 35 days. Precast panels were up to 14 tonnes, 190mm thick and 4m high. On average 16 units (equivalent to 125m2) were erected each day, using a ten-man erection team.

Built for Salford Hospital Trust, Hope Hospitalmulti-storey car park is an SCC Ltd design and build project providing parking for 1136 vehicles. It provides six levels and has a sloping deck arrangement to maximise the spaces available.

Grey shiplapped cladding was adopted to good effect on the service cores. In addition, galvanised steel edge-on-edge mesh in a random pattern forms the floor-to-floor screening, broken at floor level by a prominent white concrete aerofoil, giving the building a strong horizontal emphasis. Stunning, state-of-the-art architectural stone cladding, designed and manufactured off-site and installed by Trent Concrete as part of a £6.4 million contract, took pride of place at the new Barton Square development at Manchester's Trafford Centre. The 20,000m2 Barton Square comprises four L-shaped blocks forming a central square, mall and colonnade, with reconstructed stone cladding. Cast in a buff reconstructed stone mix, the precast cladding was chosen to blend with similar stone architecture at the existing Trafford Centre - visited annually by more than 30 million shoppers.

For The Marble Mosaic Company at 198-202 Piccadilly, the overriding requirement was for a landmark design that did justice to a premier location. Stone-faced precast concrete cladding panels were designed, manufactured, delivered and installed in a contract worth in excess of £3m. As well as the UK Portland and French Savonniers limestone facings, Chinese Constellation Grey and Red Sanhe and Kashmir Gold granite facings were used along with three types of stock brick facings. The materials were pre-assembled into wall cladding panels with reinforced concrete backings, each weighing up to 10 tonnes.

Bridgewater Place, the tallest building in Leeds, incorporates 11,900m2 of apartments over 20 floors above 24,154m2 of Grade A office space over ten floors. The focus of the scheme is an eight-storey public atrium surrounded by 1900m2 of retail space, below which is a 400-space car park. Techrete (UK) Ltd supplied precast cladding in the form of spandrels and mullions extending two storeys, with horizontal panels spanning between columns, the heaviest panels weighing 9.3 tonnes. No fewer than 500 designs were involved within the 932 panels. The concrete used limestone aggregate and white cement, surfaces being acid-etched.