Project Beagle

Project Beagle is a new office building, also known as Ingenuity House, named by its client Interserve to serve as the company’s new headquarters. The five story, 12,000 square foot building is located next to Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International Railway Station and will accommodate 1,600 Interserve employees.

The building was designed by architects Sheppard Robson and it is aiming to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating. Their goal was to create a collaborative and inspirational workplace. The exterior is characterised by the building’s stepped structure, creating a strong form that translates into a varied range of internal spaces. Billington Structures worked closely with Interserve to deliver the structural steelwork, which included the unusual stepped frame design.

A specially anodised vertical convex and concaved rainscreen cladding system was specified to maximise the building’s visual attraction. The overhang of the stepped structure shades the glass, which forms about 35% of the façade, and helps control solar gain, whilst maximising natural light, informing the passive sustainability strategy behind the building. The design of the build proved to be challenging, but in working closely with Arup and Interserve to provide a temporary works solution, the project was delivered on time and on budget.

Sustainability initiatives were incorporated into the construction phase of the building to minimise its environmental impact and ongoing energy requirements. These included a lightweight steel structure to minimise the requirements for concrete, and where it was needed it included a proportion of blast furnace slag content.  This type of concrete has significantly reduced impacts compared to standard cement. An alternative approach to insulation was used to save its carbon impact and roof-mounted solar photovoltaics panels for ongoing energy needs.

The end result of all the close attention to detail on this project is a contemporary, visually striking building.