Raines Dairy, Stoke Newington, London
Raines Dairy, Stoke Newington, London
The Overall Nature Of The Project
£8.9m project to build 51 shared-ownership flats for Peabody Trust.
At the time, this was the largest affordable housing project in Britain. It was designed by Alford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) and built by Wates Construction using steel-frame volumetric modules prefabricated off-site by Yorkon at their plant in York.
The Scope Of Services Provided By Acoustic Associates
Acoustic consultancy services including assessments for road traffic noise, railway noise and ground-borne vibration. These fed into assessments in support of the Planning Application for the Raines Dairy project.
There was also a need to design for resilience in the foundations to counter ground-borne vibration from heavy road traffic and from the nearby railway line. This included designs for vibration isolation in the pile caps and ground beams to prevent excessive levels of vibration entering the steel-frame structures. If this had occurred then, due to the extensive steel-to-steel connections between the modular units, the structure-borne vibration would have propagated throughout the structures resulting in reradiated noise within the units.
Additional services were provided with respect to the airborne and impact sound insulation between vertically and horizontally adjacent units.
Performance Against KPI’s
Vibration isolation was effectively achieved such that reradiated sound resulting from vibration was avoided as a problem. Both airborne and impact sound insulation between units was also above the requirements of the building regulations.
Specific Challenges & How These Are Overcome
This project was challenging with respect to both airborne noise and ground-borne vibration.
The airborne noise arose from the very heavy levels of traffic on the Northwold Road flank of the building and a railway line running along the East flank. Noise levels externally to the residential windows were in excess of Leq 75dBA during rush hours.
Ground-borne vibration resulted from both the high volumes of road traffic, including a significant proportion of buses and HGVs, and the passage of trains on the adjacent railway line. The railway line was also in a cutting with the track bed not greatly above the level of the toes of the CFA piles that had been used for the foundations. Thus, vibration levels at the pile caps and ground beams were significant and required isolation to be introduced between the foundations and the structure.
Resilient bearings were designed and used to provide a high degree of vibration isolation while simultaneously being profiled to provide lateral support to counter wind loadings. This strategy proved to be successful with a high degree of vibration isolation being achieved.
The project won the following awards:
- Housing Forum Demonstration Project, 2001.
- Housing Design Awards, 2001.
- RIBA Award for Architecture, 2004.
- British Construction Industry Awards (BCIA) – Best Practice, 2004.
- Housing Design Awards, 2004.
- Hackney Design Award, 2004.
- RIBA Client of the Year Award 2004 – Peabody.
- Finalist for the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award.
- RIBA Project Award (Housing Design category).
Project Value:
£8.9m
Project Services
- Assessments for road traffic noise, railway noise and ground-borne vibration.
- Design Advice Regarding Vibration Isolation
- Design Advice Relating To Sound Insulation
- Sound Insulation Testing
- Project Value: £8.9m
