Traffic Street: Student Accommodation With Acoustic Perfection

Nottingham, UK

Project Details

Traffic Street: Student Accommodation With Acoustic Perfection

Advanced Glass are specialist in thermal and acoustic door and window design. As installation experts, our role involved intricate project planning to achieve acoustic perfection within tight timescales. This case study draws back the curtains on this project, highlighting how innovation, collaboration, and communication result in high levels of efficiency.

The Traffic Street project

The unique development at 10 Traffic Street is a city-inside-a-city. In a homage to the rich history and culture of Nottingham, the building incorporates 522 modern living spaces with a delectable choice of social spaces. Two enclosed courtyards complete the project, creating a world of safety for young students.

The Timeline

10 Traffic Street presented an unusual specification for our design team. The thermal and noise-resistant Technal FY65 windows and fire-rated glazing needed to be installed before the brickwork, without compromising the weather performance. The idea was to enable internal building works to be carried out in tandem with external development, thus meeting the ambitious next-semester timeline. Put simply, to meet this deadline, the inside of the building had to be built before the outside was finished. This type of requirement may sound impossible, but this is where a little ingenuity and innovation proved invaluable.

Our in-house expert design team created a custom bracketry detail. This fixed the windows outside of the aperture, resulting in a firm, secure, and weatherproof solution. With this cocoon in place, the work indoors could continue to its demanding schedule, while work outdoors could continue making the building soundproof.

The Acoustic

10 Traffic Street is a bustling hub that presents two acoustic challenges. The first was to keep the noise of the busy road out. The second was to keep the noise of the student mini-city in. This dual focus had the additional requirement of needing to look aesthetically striking while complimenting the heritage of the historic cathedral city of Nottingham.

Our designers used a multi-material approach to provide extensive, yet aesthetically sensitive, acoustic protection. In addition to cutting-edge Technal FY65 windows, Advanced Glass supplied Technal MX curtain walling for its additional benefits of advanced thermal support and sleek, modern design. The aesthetics were continued with the inclusion of noise-reduction louvres and pressed aluminium feature panels, all of which introduced discrete layers of additional acoustic protection.

The Project Outcome

This was a delightful project that resulted in a new home-from-home for over 500 students. The use of the specially designed brackets enabled the project to have a unique, concurrent timeline. By working on both the inside and the outside of the building simultaneously, the project was completed within a tight timeframe and was ready for its new occupants without any complications. This involved intensive, smooth collaboration with an extensive team of specialists, resulting in a highly efficient installation. While the impressive turnaround makes this project special from a developer’s perspective, the attention to acoustic and aesthetic detail is the outstanding legacy for current, and future residents and neighbours.

The project quantity surveyor said: “Thanks again for your assistance on this scheme and we look forward to working together again in the future!”