Synopsis
The HIVE is a building designed to act as the support framework for research into minimising the environmental impact of the built environment. Located at Wroughton Airfield south of Swindon, UK, the HIVE is exposed to seasonal temperatures ranging from –10ºC to +35ºC, an annual average rainfall of 750mm and wind speeds that can exceed 85km/h. This offers the opportunity to evaluate materials and systems in extreme UK weather conditions.
Researching and developing materials and products at full scale requires a number of prerequisites, including an appropriate site, planning consent, building control approval and infrastructure such as foundations, utilities and data acquisition. Since all these are applicable to every project, the concept of the HIVE was to have these available as a 'plug and play' facility eliminating expensive and time-consuming preliminaries. This will result in a more effective use of researchers' time and costs, effectively fast-tracking the research output, and ultimately bringing materials, products and systems to the market more rapidly.