Number One Riverside Rochdale – a time-lapse video of its construction
Number One Riverside is the new multi-use public building in Rochdale. On 15th June 2012, I published my time-lapse video on YouTube detailing the construction of this building. Number One Riverside formally opened to the public in March 2013.
At the time I was producing this video I was also studying for my amateur radio examinations whilst also working for J21, the Oldham and Rochdale local authority construction initiative, helping local people in to jobs on Oldham and Rochdale.
The building incorporates Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council civic offices and customer service centre, Rochdale Central Library as well as conference facilities for community use, and office space for third parties. The time-lapsed images were taken from the top of the old municipal office, known locally as The Black Box, which was then demolished in 2014.
You will be able to see in the video that the main structure of the building was constructed using slip form technology. Slip form is a method of construction in which concrete is poured into the top of a continuously moving formwork. You will see in the video that concrete, pumped under high pressure, is dispensed into the slip form moving formwork through long articulated metal tubes. This facilitates rapid and economic construction. However, where slip form technology is to be used, the design must feature regular vertical elements. The primary structural strength of Number One Riverside is achieved through the two slip form towers which are subsequently surrounded by office space made from concrete deck floors to the point where the two towers are barely visible. Number One Riverside featured in the Architect, the journal of the American Institute of Architects in February 2017.
A final note: at 41 seconds in, you might notice a big fat pigeon jumps in front of the camera in its bid for stardom!
