Architype

After nearly three years of design and construction, it was a great thrill to see the first thatch being installed at our exemplary low carbon building, The Enterprise Centre at the University of East Anglia. Working on the south-wing clerestory roof, a team of 4 thatchers, led by the legendary Stephen Letch; chairman of the East Anglian Master Thatcher’s Association, got to work laying the reed from Woodbastwick (edge of the Norfolk Broads) and Saxmundham (RSPB Dingle Marshes, Suffolk). It should take the team four weeks to finish the clerestory roofs, before moving on to the massive task of thatching the building’s prefabricated rain screen panels using locally sourced straw.  A number of prototype panels have been made and tested to ensure that we get this right and we can’t wait to see the final version installed across the façade. The Enterprise Centre has been designed to achieve BREEAM Outstanding and Passivhaus certification, while the high use of renewable materials, including timber sourced from nearby Thetford Forest within the timber frame, should ensure that embodied carbon will be below 500kg CO2/sqm for its 100 year life.  The project is due to complete in May 2015. Read more about the Enterprise Centre on our project page and visit the blog again soon for more developments.