Unitrunk provides rapid solution for Cambridge
Unitrunk’s innovative cable management solutions are set to inspire the next generation of technology entrepreneurs after being installed in an exposed soffit electrical fit out at Cambridge Science Park’s recently opened The Bradfield Centre.
Designed by architects, Aukett Swanke, as a collaborative entrepreneurial community of technology start-ups and scale-ups, the eye-catching £20 million project will provide space for entrepreneurs, researchers and students to work alongside project teams from more mature, innovative businesses for the development of exciting new products.
Part-funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the facility will be managed by workspace operators, Central Working, on behalf of Trinity College and is the largest in a global network of similar membership-based communities.
Working with main contractor SDC, Munro Building Services was tasked with the mechanical & electrical installation for the three-storey, 40,000 sq ft building, which has capacity for at least 600 people on a hot-desking/agile working basis. The company chose Unitrunk’s RIS (Rapid Installation System) EasyConnect cable basket to aid faster installation of power, data, security, fire alarm and building management system cabling, both under the raised access floor and within the exposed soffit of each storey. EasyConnect was also used to link power supplies on each floor via risers.
Danny Mills, Munro Building Services site manager says: “The nature of the building means that it is very heavily serviced and the architects’ design decision to leave the high level containment visible in the soffit meant that the installation had to be extremely neat.
“Using Unitrunk’s EasyConnect basket with its integral coupler made the system faster and simpler to install. We also used the Unitrunk divider strip to convert a single run of basket into a three compartment basket, which saved time, reduced material and labour costs, maximised the available soffit space and enabled a neater finished installation.”
In addition to the EasyConnect basket used at high and low level, Munro Building Services also used Unitrunk’s single compartment trunking to link the power supply to the distribution board from the risers, provide power networks in the corridors and deliver power distribution on each storey.
Mills adds: “The curved shape of the building meant that the trunking needed to curve every 4.1 metres along the perimeter. We used Unitrunk’s flexible bend trunking to help us address that challenge and it was an invaluable solution that enabled us to complete the installation much faster to the very highest standards.”
Named after Sir John Bradfield, former senior bursar of Trinity College and scientist and entrepreneur who pioneered the establishment of the Cambridge Science Park in the 1970s, the building is now open.
