More than 500 Proteus panels featuring almost 500,000 perforations clad an internal freestanding structure in the Shared Services Facility where collaboration areas aligned with campus vistas symbolise the importance of interaction and collaboration among the many institutes the campus is home to.

The project brief was to totally modernise, reorganise the space functions and refresh the finishes for the next 25 years by addressing thermal and acoustic performance and solar control issues in a collaborative break-out hub for scientists and visitors.

The refurbished building provides meeting rooms on a new mezzanine area with cantilevered sections, a new café, communal classroom, Ashburner library and Sanger Institute laboratories reception.

The bespoke Proteus system on the internal freestanding double-height structure comprises four layers. The face panel of sheet aluminium, perforated to help meet the architect’s acoustic requirements then coated post-fabrication with a special paint which gave a textured sand blasted effect.

Behind this is an acoustic veil in four vibrant shades of blue and green fabric manufactured from 100% worsted wool with a flame retardant coating. The crepe binding in the fabric creates an optical depth and an expression similar to stone but with a soft touch.

Between this veil and the metal lining layer is a 25mm resin-bonded mineral wool core acting as the acoustic absorber. All four layers were assembled in the Proteus factory and secured along all edges using the Proteus panel framing system.

The DNA molecule pattern which features on the internal “twisted box” elevations was designed by Proteus software into individual panels and then pixelated onto each panel using a specific criteria. From this, shop drawings were created for client review and then seamlessly passed through the Proteus production process.

In addition to the aesthetic and acoustic performance requirements of the panels, the support system was also bespoke – shallower than usual to maximise internal floor space but robust enough to tolerate potential impact from the building’s users and with enough tolerance for to achieve a precise finish.

The Proteus SC panels, which were mirror polished on the face and grit polished on the rear, form a 54m long screen to the upper half of the façade of the front and side elevations of the double-height extension onto Hayes Primary School in Kent.

With the perforations reducing in size from the bottom to the top of the panels, they maximise translucency at the former and reflection of the canopies of mature trees at the front of the site, at the latter. They also act as brise soleil, providing shade from solar glare and preventing over-heating to the teaching spaces.

The Proteus SC screens also give a uniformed building elevation to what had previously been a piecemeal development, an incoherent complex of buildings which failed to announce themselves on the street front. Now the “veil” gives the illusion of a state-of-the-art new school, shielding the existing building from the road.

The new accommodation is organised around the east and north elevations of the existing school building and adds to the site four new classrooms, a small hall, ICT lab, admin area and external play spaces for more than 100 pupils.

Such is the transformation that the school has won awards including a New London Award run by London’s Centre for the Built Environment to recognise the best in architecture, planning and development in the capital and a RIBA National Award (London). Here, the judges said: “On a tight budget the architects have created a building with a clear organisation and a strong identity, with a loggia-like entrance setting the tone.”

Councillor Tim Pollard, cabinet member for children, families and learning, said: “Our main priority is to make sure we have enough places so that every child in Croydon has the chance of a good education. When we also have to ability to deliver creative schemes like this one and get such great recognition that is an added bonus.”

Mirror-black stainless steel Proteus HR panels clad a two-storey office/laboratory building that forms the major part of the £4.7million Dalton Cumbrian Facility (DCF), a joint venture between The University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute and National Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Designed to accommodate around 50 postgraduate researchers, lecturers and operating personnel in a modern iconic environment, the facility comprises an ion-beam accelerator hall with analytical and inspection laboratories, computer modelling facilities, meeting and seminar rooms, and offices.

Its location was chosen by the university to take full advantage of the area’s nuclear ties , with the National Nuclear Laboratory’s extensive R&D and engineering facilities at the Central Laboratory on the Sellafield site and at Workington.

It is fostering strong links between academia and industry that will maximise the impact of academic nuclear research in the areas of radiation science, radiochemistry, nuclear engineering decommissioning, and the management of radioactive waste.

It is set to achieve global recognition as a trusted provider of fundamental and applied research in support of the civil nuclear energy programme as well as being a major contributor in the training of existing and future nuclear experts and professionals.

BREEAM rated “Very good” its architectural expression is strongly influenced by the colour and texture of the surrounding rugged countryside. The Proteus panels on the façade of the two-storey building are carried through to the soffit of a cantilever exaggerating the slope of the site.

John Clarke, the NDA’s executive director for business planning, and Britain’s Energy Coast Board member, said: “The need for a world class nuclear research centre was a key part of the NDA’s skills strategy.”

The new purpose-built home of the M&S Company Archive at the University of Leeds features extensive use of Proteus Engineered Facades’ HR rainscreen cladding system which combines all the benefits of a Modern Method of Construction with the beauty of “bronze”.

The £6million Michael Marks Building on the university’s Western Campus follows the golden rule of architectural design “Form follows function”, combining within the façade the high strength, low maintenance and excellent corrosion resistance of stainless steel with a visually contemporary finish.

The 3D façade was designed by the university’s master planners Broadway Malyan Architects to represent the pages of a book or folds of a dress (some of the materials stored within) but although it appears highly complex, the brief response was to create a semi-unitised panel that could be installed onto a single-plane support system, reducing the complexity and time needed to install the façade.

Broadway Malyan were looking for an envelope system that would give the variety of panel sizes required for their design as well as flatness, a mirror finish and long-lasting aesthetics, with Proteus HR’s lightweight aluminium honeycomb core providing a perfectly flat finish coupled with very large panel sizes and recessed joints.

Marks and Spencer “shadow” architects Darnton EGS said: “The project uses various innovative measures to achieve its BREEAM and sustainable status. However, the rainscreen façade system is a unique feature. The architects worked closely with Proteus Engineered Facades to develop a way of using the cladding systems in such a 3D manner. “The panels are very robust but lightweight, thanks to the aluminium honeycomb core structurally bonded to the lightweight metal skin. The façade consists mainly of two modular size panels, with dimensions carefully designed to suit metal sheet sizes.”

M&S moved its company archive containing more than 70,000 items from London to its new 19,000ft2, three-storey home at the University of Leeds to help make it fully accessible to the public for the first time while also opening it up to academics and students for research, teaching and learning.