Senior Architectural System’s purchasing manager Craig Turner is about to have his cycling stamina fully tested as he embarks on the longest journey of his life!

Along with James Sutherland from Dortech Architectural Systems, Richard Rae from Balfour Beatty and Andy Bell from Wates Construction, Craig has agreed to cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats, which is a gruelling 860 mile journey – but there’s an added bite!

The team is planning to complete the ride in just six days, and that’s half the time it normally takes. That means pedalling just short of 150 miles each day or, put another way, 12 hours per day in the saddle and burning around 10,000 calories in the process!

“Each of us has been working hard to build up our strength, and we have completed a 150 mile trip over the Pennine hills, including ascending to the 1,724 feet summit of Holme Moss, but we’ll have to do this for six consecutive days!”

The aim of the cycle marathon is to raise £10,000 for the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice in Huddersfield. Kate Goldring from the hospice said, “This is one of the toughest challenges we have seen. The funds raised through the event are so important and will go towards the £2.5m needed annually to sustain the hospice and its services.

Organiser James Sutherland said, “We’ve all pushed ourselves to the limit to prepare for this mission by investing time, strength and stamina – and the occasional 5am practice ride!”

The cyclist will receive morale support from Dortech’s chairman Steve Sutherland and Senior’s operations director Mark Wadsworth, both of whom will join the team for the final 10 miles each day.

The route will start at Land’s End on 28 May, passing through Taunton, Telford, Kendal, Stirling and Aviemore before arriving at John O’Groats.

To sponsor the team, please visit www.justgiving.com/teams/LandsEndtoJohnOGroats

Reflecting the campus’ status as an innovator in the West Midlands, the recently completed three-storey steel-framed Stourbridge College art and design faculty features dramatic angular glazing to nine elevations. The systems have been manufactured and installed by East Midlands fabrications specialists Acorn Aluminium, using Senior Architectural Systems’ SCW aluminium curtain walling and SPW300 series aluminium windows.

Built within an area of major urban regeneration the project is significant, with glazing accounting for more than £300,000 of its £12m build costs. However its remarkable design presented several challenges. Its extreme angular form is an aesthetically appealing and visually arresting piece of architecture, but it meant that each pane across the nine expanses was of a different dimension. And with Acorn’s commitment to adhere rigidly to timed delivery to site, the logistics of manufacture and installation proved pivotal to the remarkable success of a tightly structured build programme.

Senior’s SCW curtain wall is a low rise system, capable of carrying glazing up to 28mm. Each pane of glass is individually inserted into a fully rebated and prepared opening. Gasket or foam tape seals to the inside create a bond between the glass and the main structure.

Its mullions and transoms are of a channel and plate construction allowing it to be fabricated into ladders for quicker assembly on site – key qualities in its specification at Stourbridge College, and making it an economical alternative to stick system curtain walls

The system is compartmentally drained and has been fully weather tested to the requirements of BS6375 and meets the thermal requirements of Approved Document L.

Senior’s SPW300 window range is a 51mm thermally broken system using polyamide strips for improved insulation and is designed to be fully compatible with the SCW curtain wall system. It will accommodate glazing from 4mm single glazing to 28mm double glazed units.

Now occupied, the 1,000 pupil campus has dramatically altered the Brierley Hill skyline. It is sited on the old Brier School site in Kingswinford, and houses the college’s art and design, textiles, fashion, graphics, illustration and digital media facilities.

Senior Architectural Systems has just return from what proved to be, for us, a very busy Ecobuild exhibition, again housed within London Dockland’s impressively large ExCeL exhibition halls. We used the event to showcase our new Senior Fibre Systems range of fibreglass doors and windows. We’re pleased to reflect on many positive discussions with our existing network of fabricators, and genuine expressions of interest from many others.

Whilst Senior Fibre Systems was one of the core attractions of our stand, we also displayed new options in our Hybrid composite aluminium and engineered timber system, including a large-span bi-fold door and an innovative lift and sliding door system, both of which were set into Hybrid curtain walling.

Alongside visits from fabricators, we enjoyed conversations with major contractors, architectural practises and journalists from the major construction and design media – all adding up to a productive three days for us which we hope will translate into the specification of our products in the near future.

Senior Architectural Systems has a twin focus at Ecobuild 2012. Centre stage is the launch of Senior Fibre Systems’ exciting new fibreglass windows and doors, and alongside will be an extended range from Senior’s Hybrid family of engineering timber and aluminium windows, doors and curtain wall products.

Senior Fibre Systems encompasses an innovate range of pultruded fibreglass windows and doors, offering impressively high specification and excellent acoustic performance. Frames are environmentally friendly and boast superior energy efficiency without the need for thermal breaks. Profiles are inherently stable and fully repairable and so ideal where robustness and predictable lifespan are commercial desirable. Variants include two casement window designs aimed, respectively, at domestic and commercial markets, along with a tilt and turn and a vertical sliding window.

Senior Hybrid Systems’ range of engineered timber internally and coated aluminium externally has been further expanded with a number of key additions, including a large-span bi-fold door and an innovative lift and sliding door system.

Designed and manufactured in the UK, both Hybrid and Fibre are fabricated by a network of UK companies which makes either an ideal solution for both new-build and refurbishment projects.

Leicester’s latest newly built school has been creatively designed and fitted with a suite of aluminium doors, windows and curtain wall from Senior Architectural Systems’ high performance ranges, which collectively account for around 60% of the building’s facade.

Working alongside designer ADP Architects and main contractor Miller Construction, leading fabricator Acorn Aluminium Limited has installed Senior’s SCW curtain wall, SPW300 suite of windows, and SD commercial door system at Soar Valley College. The school has been built by Miller as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme.

The new home of Soar Valley School is simple and functional, yet the impressive result is a reflection of the school’s aim to inspire. The entrance foyer, central hall and learning resource area punctuate the front face of the building, whilst the gently curving wings feature colour threads through all the elevations, reflecting the rich and diverse community served by the school.

Soar Valley College is one of three schools projects won by Acorn Aluminium, working in association with Miller Construction under its BSF contract. Collectively valued at £2.5m, Acorn has also installed Senior Architectural’s systems at the newly built Judge Meadows College and Beaumont Leys School. The developments have transformed the educational environment for students in the city.

“With such large spans of glass incorporated within the façade, the fabrication and installation process of the curtain wall had to be precise,” said Acorn’s managing director Martyn Harrison. “The challenge around the project was ensuring the interface between curtain wall and the cladding on the building was accurate and that it would contribute to the overall environmental and performance objectives set by the architects.”

Whilst the school took around two years to complete, Acorn worked within a 20 week schedule to manufacture the systems at their headquarters in Nottingham and transport the results to the site close to the city centre.

“Our manufacturing and delivery planning had to be robust,” added Martyn. “As part of our contract we committed to provide and install the system to a stringent timetable, and this was met in full.”

The building has received a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and ADP’s landscape design at Soar Valley College was nominated in the category for ‘Most Inspirational Use of Outside Space’ at the Excellence in BSF awards.

Martyn Harrison was pleased with the results. “It was good to be involved in a project like this, and to see the excitement amongst its users as the plans came to life,” he said.

“As well as simply providing more modern facilities for users of the school, the design also has a certain wow factor, and my colleagues and I are very proud to have been involved in the project.”

Working for main contractor J F Finnegan of Sheffield, aluminium systems specialists Alusec UK Ltd of Rotherham has installed Senior Architectural Systems’ high-performance window and curtain wall solutions at Sheffield’s latest city centre hotel.

The eight-storey, 161-bed `next generation’ Holiday Inn Express hotel – the first of its kind in any major UK city – is conveniently situated within a few minutes’ walk of Sheffield City Centre and overlooks the River Don.

Completed a month ahead of schedule, the £10m landmark building on Blonk Street features almost 200 windows fabricated from Senior’s SPW600 75mm thermally-broken internally-beaded system, selected for its impressive BS6375 performance results for air permeability, water tightness and wind resistance.

Similarly, Senior’s SMR900 series curtain wall was specified for the ground floor, designed to complement the building’s high weather resistance and thermal performance.

SMR900 is a hollow box construction. The mullions are designed to run through for optimum strength and the transoms are easily front-loaded on site using a unique jointing method. Prior to delivery to Alusec, the window and curtain wall profiles were powder coated at Senior Architectural System’s state-of-the-art facility in Doncaster, which provides fabricators with a cost-effective, highly efficient and time-sensitive turnaround service.

“With around 800 linear metres of glazing valued at more than £300,000, the window and curtain wall fabrication and installation was a major project,” said Alusec director John Armitage. “We have used Senior’s systems extensively on projects ranging from office complexes to multi-million pound contracts and were confident of our specification for this prestigious development.”

The `limited-service’ hotel is fitted out to a higher specification than a standard Holiday Inn Express and features a spacious ground floor, along with redesigned bathrooms and bedrooms built around the group’s latest ergonomic layouts.

One of the latest assets in Hilton’s portfolio of contemporary hotels, situated close to Heathrow Airport’s new £4.3bn Terminal 5 building, has been fitted with around 600 windows and more than 40 separate curtain wall screens from Senior Architectural Systems’ high performance aluminium ranges.

The architect’s brief for a predominantly glass face means that hotel users benefit from an ambience of light and space. However, given that glass is not as acoustically efficient as constructed walls – and that A380 airbuses flying overhead are the ultimate test – fabricators Elite Aluminium Systems recognised their first job would be to research ways in which high acoustic attenuation could be met.

Elite’s innovative solution was to use Senior’s SPW600 75mm deep thermally broken casement system, backed by Senior’s single-glazed STW200 full height side hung windows to achieve maximum noise isolation from aircraft flying directly overhead.

Voids between the two systems are set at either 270mm or 500mm, depending on location within the building. High performance 28.8mm acoustic laminated double glazed units have been installed. A perimeter of EPDM membrane seals the external window to the internal structure to ensure an airtight installation.