Buildings C1 and D1 of the new Greenwich Design District have been announced as winners of the RIBA London Awards 2025 – and Schöck, the leading international supplier of structural thermal breaks, has been instrumental in minimising any risk of themal bridging.
Greenwich Design District, at the heart of the Greenwich Peninsula, is made up of sixteen buildings and Schöck has provided a variety of product solutions that minimise any risk of themal bridging on five of the sixteen buildings throughout the development. Specifically though, the award winning buildings C1 and D1, had their own particular detailing demands.
Standard and bespoke Isokorb requirements
Set on the east side of the main entrance to the Design District, C1 is a three-level workshop and studio building with the unlikely addition of a basketball court on the roof. The Schöck Isokorb T type K, a load bearing thermal break element for free cantilevered reinforced concrete balcony construction, is widely used throughout C1. It has a highly thermally efficient compression module and is a load-bearing thermal break which transfers negative moments and positive shear forces. In addition though, there are unusually deep floor zones, several large cantilevers and a steel mesh enclosure supported on a braced-steel frame around the basketball court. These utilise Isokorb T type SK units, load-bearing thermal insulation solutions for connecting cantilevered steel elements to a reinforced concrete slab and which transfer negative moments and positive shear forces.
External staircase and walkway
Building C1 also also has an external steel staircase, which is supported by Isokorb T type S units – load-bearing thermal insulation elements for connecting cantilevered steel girders to steel structures. The modular design of the T type S ensures that it can be adapted to all profile sizes and load bearing capacity requirements. Where the walkway encloses the staircase, there are particularly large cantilevers. Here the walkway slabs, supported by a main beam, enclose cast-in steel beams and three cross-beams, which are bolted back to the structural slabs, once again using Isokorb T type SK units.
Large capacity thermal breaks required for D1
Building D1 is a community of studios, workshops and office spaces. Structurally it consists of concrete slabs, robust enough to support trees located on the external decks. The load demands were such that it was necessary to develop some extremely large capacity structural thermal break elements, which are based on the design of the Isokorb T type K.
Schöck thermal breaks exceed the demands of Part L
The quality of the components used in the construction of the Isokorb result in superior thermal performance. Stainless steel (in the thermal zone) is used for its greatly reduced thermal conductivity when compared with carbon steel. The HTE (High-performance Thermal Element) module used in the Isokorb system, is a concrete thrust bearing designed to transmit compressive forces and also optimise thermal conductivity. When Neopor®, an expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation known for its superior thermal performance, is used together with the HTE module, thermal bridging is almost entirely eradicated.
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