Here East

The Project

The former Olympic Broadcast and Press Centres on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a space that captured and lived many of the most memorable moments of the 2012 London Olympic games, is looking forward to a new future as a world-class digital campus, Here East. The dynamic redevelopment of Here East involves the transformation of the former Media Campus and more specifically, the Main Press Centre, Main Media Conference Room and International Broadcasting Centre, to provide a first of its kind location, complete with state-of-the-art infrastructure, for creative and digital industries.

Currently part occupied and scheduled for full completion in mid-2016, the development is already home to BT Sport’s headquarters, incorporating offices, restaurants, studio space and a data centre alongside new facilities for UCL, Loughborough University and Hackney Community College. Main contractor, Laing O’Rourke is leading the transformation of Here East into this all-round multi-use campus which will deliver a lasting educational and commercial legacy in East London.

The Challenge

With an innovative design which creates a modern, multi-purpose campus, Here East is being built to the highest performance and fire safety specifications. The team at Laing O’Rourke were tasked with designing the building’s fire protection scheme that also accommodates building movements such as movement between floors and in services. 

This proved a major challenge, as an exceptional fire safety design using air sealing and fire stopping systems compatible with the structures of the various buildings on the development was required.

The ROCKWOOL Solution

The ROCKWOOL FIREPRO® SoftSeal System in combination with FIREPRO® SoftSeal Coated Strips was selected and installed by fire protection contractor Roseville to meet the project design specification.

ROCKWOOL FIREPRO® SoftSeal System is a flexible, firestopping solution particularly suited to service penetrations and linear joints, where a high degree of movement needs to be accommodated, making it ideal for use in this type of application. The system can accommodate movement of +/- 25% and can be used for both vertical and horizontal applications to reinstate the fire resistance and acoustic performance in the re-purposing of the buildings where voids have been created for the passage of services.

At Here East, approximately 1300 linear metres of FIREPRO® SoftSeal System have been installed. The area between the slab and exterior cladding was filled with SoftSeal Linear Joint Strips, which are designed and tested to meet the fire resistance standard BS EN 1366-3. The SoftSeal system was also incorporated into the service penetrations, in the form of SoftSeal Coated Strips, which are classified to EN 13501-2 and have been tested to the dedicated fire resistance standard BS EN1366-4.

FIREPRO® SoftSeal strips coated on both the top and bottom edges were used in this project to provide a clean, white coated finish. These strips help to extend the fire stopping and acoustic performance of the building where voids have been created for passage of services.

“Fire protection was a major performance criterion for this project. ROCKWOOL was able to deliver products with long lasting firestopping performance we needed to achieve on this type of development whilst also being reliable and easy to install’, says Arthur Nelmes, Divisional Director – Passive Fire Protection, Roseville. ‘ROCKWOOL FIREPRO® SoftSeal system also simplified the application by providing proven fire and acoustic insulation performance all in one solution.”

Summary

The ROCKWOOL solution has played a major role in meeting the performance standards required for the delivery of Here East. The structural fire protection and firestopping solution will effectively minimise the risk of fire spread and protect the people and property within the buildings.