Yo, I'll tell you what I want What I really, really want

So this little project has been in the office for a good while now, has been through a number of redesigns to meet evolving building regulations, budgets, sales requests and has used innovative building materials to meet and exceed those regulations and finally (fingers crossed) looks like its ready for people to move in.

One of the major challenges was achieving the design of the façade, our client Crest Nicholson had purchased the scheme with extant planning permission for 74 apartments, a mixture of one and two beds, with split tenures across the scheme. The planning design split the scheme into 3 blocks, all of which had differing forms of precast surround to the windows.

The precast elements are a slender 60mm thick and their size means that they require secondary support to the jambs and the head, which was achieved through careful design and co-ordination with IG Masonry support to develop a system that both supports the full weight of the brickwork above whilst also supporting the window head stones. None of this would have been possible without the skill and dedication of the brickwork sub-contractor A Plus Brickwork who kindly provided the photographs for the post and did a really good job on installing a lot of precast concrete.

The scheme looks set to receive its first residents in the near future and we hope very much to send this scheme off without a comeback tour like the effervescent (not EFFLORESCENCE) Spice Girls

PS. The site was Ziggurat Car Park, St Albans and the scheme got a nickname in the office of Zigazigah after the excellent Spice Girls track Wannabe from back in 1996.