University of East London

Prestigious development for the University of East London

Wellesley was instructed to act as Employer’s Agent on this very prestigious development for the University of East London. The University is a vibrant place of learning with three sites, one in East London’s Docklands and two in Stratford.

We have been working for the University for well over a decade and are currently their framework supplier for Project Consultancy Services.

The University is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and has an annual spend programme for energy saving projects. They have their own in house energy managers and Wellesley are represented on their Carbon Management team.

The Arthur Edwards Building is a six storey concrete framed building in the heart of their Stratford campus, built in the early 1970s. It is used for office work, teaching rooms, some research labs and a lecture theatre and is home to the main kitchen and refectory for this campus.

Following a study and thermal image of the building it was apparent that the thermal qualities of this building were very poor; it was also known to be a hot house in the summer and staff were using mobile coolers. The windows were poor quality aluminum single glazed units and could not all fully close. The apron under the windows was concrete profiled panels externally with block work internally. The void was circa 300mm wide and was not insulated at its widest point.

Wellesley provided a scheme to replace all the windows with steel powder coated double glazed windows to a W 40 specification. Window voids were filled with a light weight bespoke open cell foam manufactured by BASF. We provided Brise Solaise to three elevations and carried out concrete cleaning and repairs to transform the external appearance.

Prior to works commencing we assisted with a study to equate the energy use of the building and data is being recorded now so that the annual energy saving and reduction in the University’s carbon footprint can be understood.

All the works were carried out during occupation on a decant and recant basis; so that the end users of the facility were not disturbed. The works were carried out by a framework contractor engaged on a measured term contract and took six months to complete.

During this period Wellesley also replaced inefficient lighting with new LED lights, funded by a Government backed Salix scheme, which is anticipated to be self-funding with a 5 year payback period.

This Scheme is registered for a “Green Gown Award” and we are confident it will be a leading contender once the appropriate energy saving data can be collected.