40 ASK THE MANUFACTURER
development that we have conducted throughout the years. We have very much led the way in using glass and recycled materials in masonry.” He continues: “We’ve also had some really fun projects like The Wedding Chapel in Blackpool, which was designed by dRMM and constructed from blocks containing blue luminescent glass in a matrix of limestone. They were then polished and cut into Roman brick, which was staggered and built to look like the prow of a ship. “The glass warms up during the day and then gives off a luminescent glow at night, making the whole building glow – it was a really spectacular project that caught a lot of people’s imaginations within the industry and beyond.”
ECOLOGICAL INNOVATION
Instead, it calcifi es and goes black and hard. As a result, Lignacite blocks have a very good fi re rating.”
Besides this, in more recent times, he tells me that blocks containing wood have also been recognised for having the attribute of locking up CO2 trees absorb CO2
: “Because for photosynthesis,
which is an essential process for all plant growth, it means that putting wood into blocks locks up that CO2
permanently.”
THE PROOF IS IN THE PROJECTS This winning formula has been a clear success, not least evident in the wide range of revered projects the blocks have been installed in across the country. When listing these to me, two of the major projects that immediately stand out are The Gherkin and The Shard, which, as Giles says, “are not only iconic British buildings, but iconic buildings worldwide.”
The Shard, for example, was built using 140,000 Lignacite blocks, each containing over 50% recycled material. These were used to construct the four basement levels, providing a substantial platform for Western Europe’s tallest building. To construct The Gherkin, 10,000 m² or 100,000 blocks of Lignacite were used in the central core.
“Those we supplied for the Olympics were also some of the most prestigious and fun,” says Giles. “We were involved with six projects altogether. Those were the Olympic Stadium, Velodrome, Athletes’ Village, Orbit Tower, Westfi eld Stratford City shopping centre, and the Handball Arena.” “We’re also proud of the many innovative AFM projects we have been involved with and the ongoing product
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Despite achieving a record turnover in 2021, with customers keen to reach for a trusted and proven product during uncertain times, Lignacite is not resting on its laurels and hopes to be ahead of the crowd where it matters – focusing especially on the company’s ecological innovation.
While the Government is now mandating an industry-wide Net Zero target for 2050, with interim measures, Giles tells me that Lignacite had already committed to its own, earlier target of reaching Net Zero by 2030. “We have been working towards this goal for a number of years,” he explains. “We already put a lot of recycled and renewable aggregates into our products and not much energy is required to produce concrete blocks.”
He tells me that blocks have a “very low embodied energy,” which he explains is in part because they cure largely without any additional heat or energy requirements. “A brick needs to be fi red in a kiln, whereas our kilns get up to about 40°C just through the exothermic process of cement going off,” he says. “So, as long as you start with your temperature at 2 or 3°C and you fi ll up a kiln with uncured concrete blocks, the temperature will get up to 40°C and they cook themselves. They, therefore, have half the embodied energy of a brick and a fraction of the embodied energy of steel.” “We also have our own borehole at Brandon and recycle all of that water, using it within our manufacturing process.” Further, the company is already generating “a fair proportion” of its electricity through solar panels, Lignacite recently implemented an app-based electronic proof of delivery (EPOD) system and is “continually” trying to fi nd
SPONSORED FEATURE
other recyclable materials for its products. An “innovative and amusing” example he gives me here of the latter was during the construction of the Athletes’ Accommodation in the Olympic Village, with the client requesting green glass in a particular block. “It was diffi cult to get hold of the green glass, so we got everybody to drink lots of wine and bring the bottles in,” he says. “We then ran over them with a roller, crunched up the glass, put it into the blocks, and started to supply them, only to fi nd out that they didn’t want the green glass and it had to be brown! So, we then had to drink lots of beer and bring the bottles in. The eventual project, sure enough, involved brown glass!”
ROOTS AND BRANCHES
Now looking to the future, Giles is excited that, in 2023, the company will be fully operational at its new Brandon plant, which is currently in development. He says this will lead to even greater effi ciencies and consistencies than ever before.
“I hope in the next few years we may have secured permission to develop our site at Nazeing and be able to expand that,” he says. “We certainly should be a way down the road of having found another source of aggregate or have invested in securing our own aggregate supply.”
Of the company’s continued role in construction in the future, amidst a rapidly changing landscape, Giles feels strongly that, “while new building designs and concepts come and go – whether it’s timber frame or offsite construction – in the 30 years that I’ve been involved in the industry, bricks and blocks have survived, and continue to be a very cost-effective and versatile method of construction.” “I’m confi dent that in 10 years’ time that will be unchanged – so long as we keep innovating and keep using a high proportion of recycled materials, we can go on producing a very good and sustainable product that people want and need.”
www.lignacite.co.uk
EMBODIED ENERGY COMPARISONS:
• Concrete – 1.4 joules per tonne • • • •
Bricks – 2 joules per tonne Glass – 20 joules per tonne Steel – 30 joules per tonne
Stainless Steel – 90 joules per tonne
• Aluminium – 270 joules per tonne
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