The project
The former Olympic Broadcast and Press Centres on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a space that captured many of the most memorable moments of the 2012 London Olympic games, was to be reborn as a world-class digital campus, Here East.
The dynamic redevelopment of Here East involved 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.
Main contractor, Laing O’Rourke lead the transformation of Here East into an all-round multi-use campus to deliver a lasting educational and commercial legacy in East London.
The challenge
With an innovative design to create a modern, multi-purpose campus, Here East was built to the highest performance and fire safety specifications.
The team at Laing O’Rourke was tasked with designing the building’s fire protection scheme to accommodate 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 solution
ROCKWOOL® FirePro® SoftSeal System in combination with FirePro SoftSeal Coated Strips were selected and installed by fire protection contractor Roseville to meet the project design specification.
ROCKWOOL FirePro SoftSeal System offers a flexible fire stopping 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 accommodates 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 1,300 linear metres of FirePro SoftSeal System were 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 EN 1366-4.
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.
The result
The ROCKWOOL solution played a major role in meeting the performance standards required for the delivery of Here East.
The structural fire protection and fire stopping solutions will effectively minimise the risk of fire spread and protect the people and property within the buildings.
Here East
Here East
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
London
E15 2GW
