Godiva Place offers students easy access to Coventry University and the City Centre and comprises of five connected blocks which vary in height from four to nine storeys. This high quality 772-bed student living facility is also situated right next to the point where two of Coventry's main roads into the City centre converge. A busy flyover also ascends alongside Godiva Place resulting in traffic noise wrapping around and spreading diagonally across the height of the building.
The architects, Lewis & Hickey, alongside the client and design team were keen to implement a concept that shields the interior of the site from noise and pollution from the adjacent dual carriageway to deliver a comfortable living and studying environment, optimising the health, wellbeing and productivity of its students.
There were two particular acoustic challenges to work through as Technal’s National Sales Manager, Gareth Evans, explains: “The first related to ‘out-to-in’ noise. The second was from floor-to-floor or storey-to-storey. For ‘out-to-in’ the acoustic report stated that the aluminium systems and glass together had to achieve specific reductions across certain frequency bandwidths (rather than the more commonly requested general acoustic reduction). The frequencies ranged from 63Hz, which is what you might get from a lorry, to 8,000Hz – like a high-pitched whistle.
“At Godiva Place you would expect to experience anything from the fast flowing low drone of traffic with a distinct sound of rolling tyre noise, through to the low rumble of the combustion engines on tickover of stationary traffic, essentially different levels and character of noise that cover the vast decibel scale. This challenging soundscape required careful acoustic design to protect the occupants adequately.
The challenge for the team was acquiring all of the necessary test data, as some of the data sets weren’t available. Dan Holden, Business Development Manager at CASU Consulto, explains: “This was one of the most demanding acoustic specifications we have ever seen and from tender to order involved a nine-month process. Getting the right solution was key to the success of this project and a collaborative approach was essential from the start. As façade contractor, our job is to pull together the right experts to make it happen and Technal provided technical support at every step, investing a lot of time and money into achieving the right solution."
For the bedroom windows, full height aluminium framed large single panels of glass are grouped vertically to create tall, elegant openings in the red multi brick slip and natural sandstone cladding facade. Creating the ideal living and study environment, 500 FY 65 windows optimise natural ventilation and daylighting.
Also featured is 4,300m² of GEODE MX 52 Visible Grid Curtain Wall in both capped and toggle formats. The toggle curtain walling has been installed to a height of 3.9m at ground level, skirting around blocks B1 and B2 with four sets of automatic sliding CD Commercial doors at key entrances. The capped curtain walling spans multiple floors is used across all blocks.
