The Silk District, Whitechapel, London

URSA, has seen some 25,000m² of its glass mineral wool insulation products specified and installed at one of the London’s largest residential development projects in recent years.

Ian Claydon, Technical Manager for URSA UK, describes the specification through to installation journey:

“The Silk District is a new development located close to Whitechapel Station and within walking distance to the City of London. The Whitechapel based scheme compromises three residential blocks set around a piazza with private landscaped gardens. New commercial space on the ground floor of The Silk District will welcome many new and exciting restaurants, cafes, bars and shops. The Borough is considered an important area of regeneration for London and will meet the aspirations of neighbouring Shoreditch, Brick Lane, Spitalfields Market and Bethnal Green all of which are less than a 10-minute walk from the development.

“Our work with the London based property development company leading the scheme, Mount Anvil, began in November 2018. We provided advice and guidance on making the correct choice of materials, achieving compliance with Building Regulations (thermal & fire performance, requirements and resistance to rain penetration) and compliance with the NHBC Standards. We also provided numerous thermal models, U-value calculations and associated condensation risk analysis. The Mount Anvil team were undoubtedly impressed with the speed and quality of URSA’s Technical Services.

“We were involved with external wall construction as well as the design of a brick clad rainscreen system and continued to work extensively on the scheme throughout 2019 as the design developed further. Work was delayed at the beginning of 2020 due to Covid and re-started in July 2020.

Ian explained: “Collaborating with the client in these very early phases ensured that they were able to select a product that is entirely right for each and every one of their primary and secondary needs. Planning was critical within the design and roll out and meticulous attention to detail was applied during these initial phases and throughout.

Key products installed included URSA’s CAVITY BATT 32 & WALLTEC BLACK 32 – 12,000m² and URSA ACOUSTIC ROLL - 13,000m².

Mark Guest, Regional Sales Manager for URSA continued:

"URSA WALLTEC BLACK 32 and URSA CAVITY BATT 32 were chosen for their fire classification of Euroclass A1 when tested to EN 13501-1:2018 Reaction to Fire and being manufactured with a recycled glass content of up to 73%. From an installation perspective, the black glass fleece tissue facing on URSA WALLTEC BLACK 32 means that the product could be used behind open joint cladding without being seen."

“There were several other over-arching factors to consider within this scheme and those included the sheer size and scale of the site and its location in a packed city centre. The nature of both products meant that they could be compressed therefore saving time and money on transport, effectively halving the number of journeys needed. This meant that more products could be delivered to site and stored in an area where space was at a premium.

“Work is now once again very much underway with an anticipated completion date of early in 2021. The property market is thriving once again and Whitechapel is becoming recognised as a hotspot for investment and is now being considered the destination of choice for many new businesses.

Our distributor partner, Encon Insulation in Dagenham, worked closely alongside us during the project”

Ian concluded: “It’s fantastic to see two of our core product specified at this major residential development. We have enjoyed a collaborative, partnering approach with the client throughout. The client has been eager to select a products readily available on the market, and we’ve been proud to support them from the design phase through to installation."