Over the last 62 years, Farrat have successfully partnered with a range of local, national, and international organisations that share a passion for solving complex engineering innovation challenges in a bid to make lives better. This has included research partnerships with education authorities, collaborations with leading industry institutions as professional members, supporting and engaging with STEM organisations to offer work placements, and submitting Farrat products and services to the scrutiny of 3rd party testing and accreditation.
However, the ongoing partnership with multi-discipline engineering firmClancy Consulting stands out as one of the most successful series of collaborations that have contributed to Farrat’s advanced engineering achievements in UK construction to date.
Uniting to deliver world-class engineering projects
Farrat and Clancy have collaborated on 35 commissions across a range of construction projects within the last six years.
An early notable project was back in 2016 at ADF (Anthology Deptford Foundry) in London, where a specialist building vibration isolation solution was required to provide lateral movement restraint and vertical acoustic isolation. The solution was essential to achieving the ambitions of the client and the wider project design team, due to the proximity of railway tracks on two sides of the site generating prominent levels of disturbing noise and vibration.
Farrat worked with Clancy to design bespoke high-performance Shear Keys that would provide high vertical load capacity capable of eradicating tension in the walls and high shear loads to minimise the number of assemblies required.
Read more about the Building Vibration Isolation developed for Ashley Road East by downloading the Case Study.
More recently in 2020, Farrat and Clancy worked together to deliver Ashley Road East, a new 183-unit mixed-use development located in Tottenham Hale.
A key challenge when building in London is the surrounding network of the London Underground, railway lines, high traffic roads and activity from the busy city life each causing significant noise and vibration disturbance. Vibration generated from the London Underground Victoria Line would cause significant structural problems to the proposed Ashley Road East development site and without building vibration isolation there would be a substantial risk of disruption from structure-borne noise.
Clancy bought Farrat into the project at the pre-construction stage, to assist in developing a variety of isolation solutions to mitigate against both structural and thermal disturbances impacting on building performance.
Together, the team designed a Base Vibration Isolation system as the most efficient long-term solution to ensure a comfortable and safe environment for the entire lifetime of the building. The assemblies within the system were designed, manufactured, and then supplied directly to the ARE site and throughout the construction phase Farrat supported the project team with regular on-site installation guidance and post-installation inspection.
Another complex project was Regents Crescent, a super prime residential development located in London. Following a vibration survey undertaken by Hilson Moran Architects during design stage, it was discovered that the new buildings would be subject to re-radiated noise generated by existing underground train movements beneath the development across Hammersmith & City, Circle, Metropolitan, Jubilee and Bakerloo lines.
Farrat and Clancy worked together to re-engineer the basic shear key design created for 20 Grosvenor Square and tuned it to the different load cases present at Regents Crescent.
The project has since been shortlisted at a finalist for Building Magazine’s Project of the Year award 2021.
Additional structural, acoustic, and thermal isolation projects in the engineering innovation partnership portfolio include:
- 2015: MIHP (Manchester Institute of Health and Performance) part of the Etihad complex
- 2015: Grosvenor Square
- 2016: ADF Anthology
- 2017: 60 Curzon Street
- 2018: AHW Anthology Tottenham Hale Works
- 2018-Ongoing: The Factory
- 2019: 21 Moorfields
- 2020: Lewisham Exchange
- 2020: Ashley Road East
- 2019-21: Thermal Break innovation project
Multi-faceted collaboration, trust & respect
In a recently published post-pandemic constructioninsight released earlier this year, Farrat and Clancy both discussed the impact of recent societal and legislative events on client expectations, best practice, technology utilisation, and subsequent evolution of ‘smarter & more collaborative’ working.
Clancy’s Civil and Structural Associate, Paul Fleming, has also recently reflected on how the relationship with Farrat has evolved:
“Since 2015, Clancy Consulting has been working with Farrat to deliver innovative solutions for whole building isolation. Over several years, there has been an increasing expectation on new developments to deliver the highest standards of acoustic and vibration performance. Whether that is preventing noise and vibration from passing from one area of a building to another or preventing external influences from disturbing the comfort of the internal environment, Farrat and Clancy work together to find the solution.
Clancy has supported Farrat on some significantly challenging projects during this time. Building isolation from ground vibration due to below-ground rail networks often leads to full building isolation being considered as the highest standard of protection. The brief is often simple, ‘we need a break between these two points to carry X Load.’ It is only when you drill into the detail that the challenges of geometry, load path, movement, shear load transfer, collapse tie provision, to name a few, become apparent.”
“At the extreme end of things, our affectionately named “Big Bertha”, could deliver 2400kN of shear across the isolation joint as well as a sizable 8400kN vertically. The product is supplied by Farrat to the highest standard of manufacturing and installation support. With our team providing guidance and support through the design and installation stages so that it can be integrated into the construction.
This is a true example of a successful partnership that we are both delighted to be a part of.”Oliver Farrell, CEO at Farrat agreed with Clancy’s evaluation of the working relationship:
“One of our goals at Farrat is to maximise the return on investment for our clients, which generally means maximising the space available out of already challenging plots of land. To achieve this, like Olympic athletes, we are constantly challenging ourselves to push the boundaries.
Clancy have helped us to achieve this in a wide range of projects to create successful outcomes either by providing the intricate detailed design to get our creative ideas to work or bringing their own creativity to find solutions to impossible challenges. Always with the comfort that the final design will be robust and buildable. They are a pleasure to work with.”
For more information on bespoke engineered Building Vibration Isolation solutions, visit our hub here or contact our Technical Team here.
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