Schock Isokorb Provides Thermal Break Solution

Schock Isokorb thermal break system has been installed at the new headquarters of Aardman Animations, the film company responsible for Wallace and Gromit. The Bristol based studio seen the construction of a new three-storey headquarters building which includes a mini cinema presentation suite, office space and new catering facilities. The new building provides office and studio space, arranged around a tapered atrium providing break out spaces, daylight and air movement for the natural ventilation.

The building is designed to be highly sustainable in both its materials and use of energy. It externally features a brise soleil to prevent solar gain inside the building, which is a heavy, permanent structure. The brise soleil is structurally connected to the floor slab by steel beams, and as a result has to meet the requirements of Part L of the building regulations, which demand a thermal break solution to prevent cold bridging. Schock provides the type KS14 Isokorb as a solution, a module positioned between the outer and inner structural connection points that blocks the outflow of heat through the use of polystyrene insulation foam.

This polystyrene core sits inside a compression module that has stainless steel bars passing through it, which in turn take the tension and shear forces between the building frame, and on this occasion the brise soleil which runs along the whole of one side of the new building. The Isokorb enables a thermally insulated, load bearing connection to be made between reinforced concrete and steel construction components. The Isokorb reduces thermal energy loss in connective areas by guaranteeing the homogeneity of the thermal envelope between cantilever structures and the internal floor.

It also transfers load and maintains full structural integrity, while at the same time enabling inner surface area temperatures to remain well in excess of those likely to cause mould formation and condensation. The Isokorb enables optimum compliance with the building regulations approved documents by using numerical modelling to calculate the building's energy performance. There is also compliance with the Government Standard Assessment Procedure SAP 2005.

The Schock Isokorb range offers thermal break solutions for connections between concrete-to-concrete, concrete-to-steel and steel-to-steel and provides BBA Certification for the concrete-to-concrete and concrete-to-steel ranges. There are more than 250 standard solutions available in the Schock range and modules can be tailored to suit any application, with different types enabling the transmission of shear, bending moment and tension, as well as compression.