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Design with Glass Reinforced Concrete Facade Competition
Download the brief & guidelines
Ibstock and EH Smith are calling for designers to submit great designs to showcase their talents with glass reinforced concrete façade panels. The winning design will be judged by RIBA, Associated Architects, EH Smith and Ibstock and displayed in the new showroom of EH Smith in Digbeth.
What is GRC?
GRC is a thin walled, lightweight composite concrete with excellent flexural capacity. These properties allow bespoke and daring features and forms to be created in a wide range of applications such as 3d geometric forms, extensive colouring and texturing and accommodating intricate brickwork styles. Its lightweight nature gives it a relatively low EPD compared to other precast systems of around 26kgco2/m2 for standard faced GRC and 53kgco2/m2 for a brick faced GRC.
Competition scope
Within EH Smith’s Digbeth showroom in Birmingham, the available area of GRC façade is 3.15 x 3.15m, however the maximum single panel size for manufacture is 3.15m x 1.575m
Judging
The submissions should give particular reference to:
- The commercial needs of EH Smith for the display and showcase of our products and materials in a flexible and dynamic way.
- The importance of creating a pleasant and attractive space for colleagues, customers and casual visitors
- The ability to adapt and update displays, units and decoration as tastes and needs dictate.
Assessment will be conducted at the discretion of EH Smith and Ibstock. Particular emphasis will be given to the overall concept, aesthetic harmony with 312-314 Bradford Street, Buildability and Practicality.
How to submit your entry
- Ensure you are signed up to the competition by completing the sign up form
- Entries for the design of the showroom façade panel to consist of a single A3 sized PDF sheet
- Send your submission as a PDF to ibstock.futures@ibstock.co.uk
View terms and conditions below.
About EH Smith’s Design Centre in Birmingham
EH Smith was formed in 1922. A key division of the company is its Architectural Solutions team, who have a remit to work alongside architects and construction professionals in the specification, procurement and supply of construction materials.
In 2020 the Architectural Solutions team opened its Design Centre in Clerkenwell in central London. The same team is taking premises at 312 – 314 Bradford Street in the Digbeth area of Birmingham (B5 6ET) to create a supplementary Midlands base.
The vision for this new facility is for it to become a centre for specification and architectural sales services in the Midlands and beyond, mirroring and working in operational tandem with the existing Design Centre in Clerkenwell.
As such it will showcase a large range of products from partner companies that EH Smith has solus or other sales rights over. Predominantly brick but also masonry support systems, facades and cladding materials. A wide range of heavy side construction materials will be exhibited as the needs and preferences of EH Smith dictate. It is anticipated that Bradford Street will act as a centre for events, exhibitions and temporary installations that are linked to the construction industry.
The building, which is owned by Bradford Street Properties, is late C19 in construction and most likely was designed as a weighbridge shop for the Avery Weights and Measures Company before their relocation to Soho Foundry in Handsworth in the 1890s.
It was extended in the 1950s to create ancillary office and meeting room space on the city centre facing side. Subsequently, it has been a ‘metal bashing’ workshop for various companies, most recently the Birmingham Machine Tool Rebuilding Company, which ceased trading in 2019.
It is roughly north-east/south-west in orientation. It is surrounded to the north-east and south-east by Birmingham’s main coach station and by a small car park for the coach station’s users. Both are owned by National Express.
The privately owned Anchor Public House occupies the rest of the south-east curtilage and forms an L shaped building at the junction of Rea Street and Bradford Street. The Anchor Public House is listed at Grade II. The Digbeth and Deritend Conservation Area is adjacent.
The building is at the centre of a major area of redevelopment. This involves the extension of the city centre to the south from the BullRing shopping centre to Rea Street and the immediate environs of 312 -314 Bradford Street. The area, known as ‘Smithfield,’ involves the repurposing of the now redundant Wholesale Markets site.
Terms and Conditions
Design With GRC is organised by EH Smith and Ibstock. All information and material will be shared between the parties.
The following terms and conditions apply to all competition participants
Participants can comprise students, young professionals or other. You must disclose your party in the sign up form.
Entrants must be residents of the United Kingdom. Submissions from abroad will not be judged.
Material that will be received later, will not be included in the judging process.
If a team will publicly display the submitted work before the official announcement of the winners, the team will be disqualified.
All IP rights will remain with the applicants at all times. The organization(s) EHSmith and Ibstock hold the right to exploit and use the images for 2 years to promote the Design Competition itself. Use of these images will always include the names of the designers/applicants
Organisers have the right to disqualify any designs should they be inappropriate or do not accommodate manufacturing and installation constraints.
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