Project
London Square, Bermondsey Village
Project specs:
Roofing Contractor:
Contour Roofing (Essex) Limited
Project Category:
Sika Liquid Plastics, Single Ply and Bio-Diverse Green Roofing Systems.
Project Location:
Lamb Walk, Bermondsey, Southwark, London, SE1 3TT
Project Description:
A stone’s throw from South Bank, London Square Bermondsey Village is located at the corner of Lamb Walk and Morocco Street. A mixed-use new build, the scheme provides ground floor commercial space and 29 residential apartments to the upper floors. These luxury apartments have communal garden area and balconies.
The design approach responds to the eclectic and exciting architectural context of the surrounding area. A treatment of varied brickwork, deep windows, inset balconies and reconstituted stone shop-fronts provides a modern building, enhancing the conservation area. The design required a roofing solution that would look stunning and offer high performance.
A roof was once seen only as a means of protecting a building from the elements, but now it is increasingly being seen as a valuable space that can be utilised. The client required a biodiverse, sustainable communal garden and roof as part of the project.
Main Covering:
Bio-Diverse Green Roof Area
Area: 860m²
Height: 12000mm
Building Use: Residential
A warm ballasted system is to be installed using Sarnafil G410-18EL Light Grey as the main roof sheet with Sarnafil G410-15EL Light Grey for all detail work flashings.
Concrete Deck
VCL – Sarnavap 5000E SA Foil Faced self-adhesive bituminous felt.
Insulation – SarnaTherm G Tapered Insulation
Membrane – G410-18EL Light Grey, Fully adhered with Sarnacol 2170 cold applied adhesive.
Protection – G445-13 PVC protection sheet.
Inverted roof system – DECOTHANE Root Resistant Base Coat and Top Coat
Sika Liquid Plastics – Decothane for balconies and details
Landscape works Soft and Hard: SkyGarden Green Roofs
Client – Award winning developer London Square 01895 627300
Contour Roofing – Jonathan Woods – 01279 635392
Contour Roofing (fitter) – Lee Pratt/Joe McCanna
October 2014 – Finished in January 2015.
The roofing project was split into three parts – the first floor required an accessable green roof for residents, then the two other higher level roofs required a green roof and a brown roof. These were chosen for their aesthetic values (as they could be seen from surrounding buildings) and to assist with the release of rainwater.
The project was originally specified in hot melt. However, this product specification wasn’t possible, as it wouldn’t give desired aesthetic finish required by the client and architect. The client wanted an “all singing all dancing” solution that would deliver superior performance and a flawless finish, in line with the luxury flats.
Jonathan Woods, Contour Roofing, suggested using Sika products, as the roofing project was complex and expansive, requiring expert advice and planning. He explained that Sika give the best for support to both contractor and client, and would be the best option. It was a challenge to change the specification at a late stage, but Contour, working in close partnership with Sika, provided a solution that met, and exceeded, the client’s expectations.
Work was done to cover the main roof, balconies and podium over a car park of the new build using a full Sarnafil system. The design of the communal gardens was intricate and detailed, especially around roof lights, podium and upstands. Sika Liquid Plastics Decothane was used on some of the tricker elements and the balconies, demonstrating the great compatibility between Sika’s various roofing products. All work was finished to an extremely high standard, as was the aesthetic requirement of the client, achieving a 20 year guarantee from Sika.
Sky Garden, the UK’s leading independent specialist company for green roofs and podium landscaping, worked with Contour and Sika, providing expert advice on biodiverse habitat creation and living roof design. Sky Garden provided technical support and information for the podium hard and soft landscaping, Biodiverse Habitat creation and green roof requirements, to ensure the systems met all BREEAM, Planning and client requirements for the project. This included producing NBS Q37 Specifications, supply chain information, production data and Biodiverse planting schedules.
Sky Garden Green Roof systems conform with the European (FLL) and National (GRO) Guidelines for all aspects including product quality, installation good practice, system sustainability and quality control. It’s soft and hard landscaping systems for the podium project conformed with the landscape architect’s design and functional requirements.
Challenges:
The project had to be completed over a number of phases, with Biodiverse Green Roofs completed first and the hard and soft landscaping elements completed during the later stages of the programme. As a residential development, it was imperative for Sky Garden and Contour to complete the podium works to a very high standard so that new home-owners could move in to a welcoming ‘green’ environment, complete with amenity areas, communal seating, lawns, timber pergolas and established planting. Sky Garden worked closely throughout the project with partners at Contour Roofing, SIKA and London Square, to ensure that the challenges of strict budget, tight programme and mid-London site with restricted access were all met successfully.
The site was very tight for access for deliveries and cramped working space during construction, so all parties had to work very closely to work around the challenges of this inner-City site. The project combined living roofs to meet biodiversity requirements which are at roof level and not accessible other than for maintenance, together with a variety of Landscaping finishes to provide a pleasant, attractive public amenity for new residents.
All work was independently tested by Thornton Consulting to make sure it was of the highest quality, passing with flying colours.
The feedback from SIKA, Contour and LS was extremely positive and Contour, Sky Garden and Sika have since partnered on new projects.
James Ansell, Development Manager at London Square, said: “We were really impressed with the finish on the Bermondsey Village building. The work that Contour did was of the highest quality and were very happy with how everyone worked together to deliver a high performance solution that looked visually stunning. The installation was difficult at times, as we were tight on both time and space but Contour always went the extra mile to solve any issues. We were particularly assured by the level of guarantees offered by Sika across the whole roof, as this gives us piece of mind for the future. We are now working with Contour on a number of projects going forward.”
All parties are proud of the work accomplished and look forward to deepening relationships and future collaboration.
Sika Sarnafil have carried out their own case study on this project – read it here.
