This luminous four-storey cube, design by Bond Bryan architects, appears both solid and translucent at the same time. The outer panels of the main building are clear while those at the rear are faced with yellow to contrast against black industrial style workshops.

The building is designed for use in high-level apprentice training in Formula One, aerospace and energy for Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) at The University of Sheffield. The brief required an aesthetically appealing building that achieved a BREEAM “Very good” rating.

Architect Jon Rigby said ‘We wanted a design which achieved a translucent layered quality to the main elevation and assumed different appearances depending on the lighting conditions. It was also important for the entire skin to be monolithic without panel modules and the 18m high Rodeca panels allowed us to achieve this in an elegant way,’ he said.

Around 1,800m² of Rodeca’s 40mm PC 2540-4 wall panel was used for the rainscreen and internal cladding. These panels were fixed to bespoke bracket systems. With some of the panels 18m in length – the longest ever supplied in the UK – the installation provided some unique challenges, but the end result is quite striking.

For more information visit www.rodeca.co.uk