The Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities

Vetter UK are responsible for the supply and installation of the traditional stone handset cladding as well as the stone and brick on precast concrete cladding to create the external façade of this iconic new university building.

The traditional loadbearing handset cladding includes 1,135m2 of Clipsham stone (Bidwell and Medwell) in addition to the SFS backing walls and copings. The precast concrete consists of 3,576m2 (331 no panels), of which 1,848m2 (164 no) are natural stone-faced panels and 1,728m2 (167 no) are brick faced panels. Site Installation works commenced in February 2024 with the 30 no GRC soffit panels to the North and South Colonnade, followed by the precast and handset packages.

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities is the first Passivhaus building of its size to be constructed in the UK. Passivhaus standards demand high levels of insulation and an airtight building fabric, with every joint of the completed walls taped to minimise air loss. Vetter UK have a dedicated Passivhaus champion on the project ensuring that work is completed correctly, photographed, and documented on our Quality system. This has achieved record airtight results which will benefit the long-term thermal performance of the building and be a model for future buildings to achieve their ambitious environmental targets.