Ductal Concrete Innovation

Join us at the Building Centre in London on October 23rd at 6.00pm for a ‘Concrete Innovations’ Seminar.  Guest speakers include RCKa architect Dieter Kleiner – responsible for the stunning Ductal®-clad TNG Youth Centre, and Romain Delpont product manager at Lafarge.  The project was recently shortlisted for the 2013 New London Awards for best public building, and was a finalist for the inaugural prize for the concept design in 2011.

Developed by Lafarge, Ductal® UHPC possesses a unique combination of superior properties including strength, ductility, durability and enhanced aesthetics. This enables designers to develop and realize new sculptural approaches to concrete forms. Armourcoat hold the first sublicense to manufacture Ductal® precast elements in the UK.

The seminar is free to attend.  For more information, visit www.buildingcentre.co.uk/events or call the Building Centre directly on 0207 692 6234.

Performance Concrete for Chelsea Flower Show

Armourcoat were specified for an award-winning garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.  Designed by Jo Thompson Landscape & Garden Design, and built by The Outdoor Room, the silver medal winning Food & Environment Research Agency’s (FERA) show garden, incorporated Ductal® Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC) panels.

The garden design, entitled ‘Stop the Spread’, highlights how plant pests and diseases and invasive non-native species could impact our gardens and countryside.  A sunken garden featuring herbaceous planting and a sculpture by Tom Stogdon, is bordered by woodland trees and lush shade-loving plants. This is contrasted with an avenue of lifeless trees and a border of concrete-panelled walls with an intricate pattern illustrating the tree disease ‘Chalara’ (Ash dieback).

A series of large custom-made Ductal® panels were designed and manufactured by Armourcoat for the garden.  Developed by Lafarge, Ductal® possesses a unique combination of superior properties including strength, ductility, durability and enhanced aesthetics.  This enables designers to develop and realize new sculptural approaches to concrete forms.   It can be cast in large thin panels with an outstanding level of surface finish detail, and has a strength and durability greater than natural stone.

Jo Thompson is a landscape and garden designer based in Kent.  Jo designs a wide range of gardens from tiny rooftop spaces to residential gardens, public spaces and country estates, both in the UK and overseas.  This is Jo’s fourth Show Garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Images - courtesy of FERA Crown Copyright 

Ductal for the New Generation

Ductal® Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) has been specified on the TNG (The New Generation) £3.5m new-build youth centre in the borough of Lewisham.

This state-of-the-art building, funded by the government's MyPlace scheme, will provide a range of vocational, leisure and support services for the young people of Sydenham.  The youth centre will include a climbing wall, training kitchen and cafe, multi-use games area, recording studios, health clinic, dance and performances spaces, teaching spaces and IT suite.  RCKa Architects worked closely with young people from the area to develop designs for the building, and contractor Mansell are now working on site to complete the project for an opening in Spring 2013.

Ductal® is a revolutionary ultra-high performance cement composite material with outstanding characteristics that are unique in the world of mineral building materials.  Ductal® presents a genuine revolution in the concrete sector.  Developed by Lafarge, Ductal® UHPC possesses a unique combination of superior properties including strength, ductility, durability and enhanced aesthetics.  This enables designers to develop and realize new sculptural approaches to concrete forms.  175m2 of custom-made Ductal® corrugated panels were created to match the Plexiglas rainscreen cladding.