EJOT crossfix provides read-made fixing solution

The EJOT CROSSFIX facade support system has enabled Kovara Projects to install a complex timber cladding feature as part of a large new building at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.

The EJOT CROSSFIX system, which will be showcased at the Zak World of Facades event in Manchester in June, has been used in a project to create Tech Edge West.

Delivered by main contractor Glencar, this will provide 70,000ft2 of mixed use office space on the campus near Didcot to support a growing community of scientists, engineers and innovators within the Oxford-Cambridge Arc. Designed by architects Scott Brownrigg to meet carbon net zero in construction and target BREEAM Very Good certification, the new development follows a fabric first approach.

The building’s eye-catching design features a sawtooth roof with a building envelope that uses a carefully considered palette of materials. This includes dark standing seam roofs and outer walls combined with naturally finished timber cladding to complement the natural setting and enhance the building’s striking architectural form.

A PLUG-AND-PLAY SOLUTION

Each unit features a recessed façade at the gable ends formed by incorporating cantilevered purlins into the roof design.

This allows for curtain walling to be incorporated, maximising internal light, with the overhanging roof helping to manage solar gain. This element of the design required a continuation of the exterior wall’s

Thermopine timber cladding on the soffit of the roof overhang to achieve the aesthetic goal. It was here where the project’s building envelope contractor, Kovara Projects, tasked EJOT UK with providing a ‘plug-and-play’ solution for this distinctive architectural feature, which covers a total of 24m2 across the

eaves of all the recessed facades, using the CROSSFIX system.

EJOT CROSSFIX is an advanced, stainless steel (A4) substructure system, designed for mounting rainscreen

facades and bespoke cladding, that offers sustainability and thermal efficiency advantages over aluminium alternatives. Robust and supported with both a European Technical Assessment (ETA) and Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), the system is uniquely versatile in that it enables both horizontal and vertical support profiles to be attached to a single console (bracket) to streamline

the installation process.

Kovara Projects initially considered the option of engineering its own rail and bracket solution. However, given the additional time this would have added to undertake engineering calculations and arrange fabrication, the team was attracted to the significant advantages offered by the ‘off the shelf’ CROSSFIX

solution.

Scott Norris, Kovara Projects’ Design Director, had been introduced to the CROSSFIX system in discussions about other façade projects with EJOT UK’s Business Development Manager, Kevin Rackley. He was keen to explore how it could be used in bespoke scenarios such as Tech Edge West, as well as more standard rainscreen projects. It required a fixing solution that suitably achieved distancing from the main purlin while also ensuring a seamless continuation of the timber façade cladding up to a ridge height of 15m.

FULL ENGINEERING

CALCULATIONS

The first steps in developing the optimum solution required EJOT UK’s Technical Manager, Jon Knaggs, to liaise with Kovara’s design team and use CROSSFIX’s integral engineering calculation program – a key part of the CROSSFIX design solution. This ensured a specification including the full engineering calculations could be provided quickly to avoid delays. This capability, coupled with the flexibility of the system, impressed Scott Norris and the Kovara team.

Scott says: “By using the CROSSFIX system in conjunction with EJOT’s technical support, the system’s enhanced structural and spanning capabilities were identified and incorporated into the design, enabling

a reduction in the quantity of material required for the soffit installation when compared with a traditional bespoke fabricated support framework. This was achieved while maintaining a fully engineered, structurally robust solution and reducing the practical and ergonomic challenges associated with overhead installation works.”

Once the substructure design and product specification was approved by Kovara and the wider project team, EJOT supplied the complete CROSSFIX package to site with a comprehensive installation guide.

This proved to be a genuine time-saver on site according to Kovara’s Projects Manager, Craig Smith, who comments: “The CROSSFIX detailing allowed us to easily generate installation guidance for our site team to follow. With such a niche and unusually deep fixing application, the value of working to an easy stepbystep process to fix the sub-grid, while maintaining full structural integrity, proved invaluable for our installers.”

EJOT UK’s Kevin Rackley adds: “We were delighted to be able to support Kovara Projects on this landmark scheme and enable the architect’s aesthetic vision for the timber cladding to be achieved without compromise. “The versatility offered by CROSSFIX due to the nature of its design means it can solve all kinds of façade fixing challenges without the need to develop bespoke bracket and support profiles. In addition

to the cost and time savings this offers, this also provides the assurance of an ETA to demonstrate its performance capabilities.”