First building completed at Swansea University’s £450m Bay Campus

The steel-framed Institute of Structural Materials (ISM) is the first building to be completed and handed over by developer St Modwen on Swansea University’s Bay Campus project.

The ISM building is a 72m long × 26m wide portal frame with a 10m wide lean-to structure positioned along either side.

It will provide a large testing facility for existing materials that are used in the aerospace and aero engine industries. The structure will also house a data centre for the new Bay Campus.

“A large open column free space was required for this building’s research area and a steel portal frame offered the quickest and most economical solution,” said Vinci Construction Project Director Jerry Williams.

Steelwork contractor Caunton Engineering has erected a total of five buildings for the project consisting of the £32M Manufacturing facility, the School of Management, the Great Hall, a Library, as well as ISM (see NSC Jan/Feb 2014).

All of the structures are unique due to their individual uses, and vary in degrees of complexity. Below ground they also differ due to the site’s changing landscape, with the buildings either built on pad foundations or driven piles.

The largest of the buildings and the first to be erected is the 95m long × 87m wide Manufacturing facility. This three-storey structure is divided in half by a 9.5m wide street, which will be glazed at either end and spanned by a tensile fabric roof.

A further two steel framed buildings for the overall scheme have been constructed by Leadbitter.

The entire Bay Campus scheme is on schedule for the intake of students in September 2015.