United Kingdom

Built by main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine on behalf of Capital and Regional Plc. The new $64 million Xscape Milton Keynes, completed in May 2000, makes a dramatic impact on the Buckinghamshire skyline, standing 44 m high, covering an area the size of three football pitches (55,000 sq ft).

The development, designed by Newcastle architects FaulknerBrowns, comprises a 16 screen cinema, family entertainment centre, health and fitness club, a 24 lane ten pin bowling alley, climbing walls, lifestyle shopping and a choice of restaurants and bars. By far the most stunning feature though is the 'real-snow' indoor ski slope, known as the snozone.

The Snozone is the largest of its type in Europe, measuring 170 m by 60 m, the "Ski box" the structure is effectively an enormous cold-storage unit. This put great demands on the architect and the specialist insulation contractor, McVeigh Insulations, of Manchester.

More familiar with working in the food industry, McVeigh's faced the challenge of insulating a floor which varied in gradient up to a maximum slope of 15 degrees. After a great deal of consultation the decision was taken to use a composite panel with an integral STYROFOAM™ core. Ideally suited for the purpose, STYROFOAM from Dow Construction Products, is a high specification extruded polystyrene insulation material. It has a high strength to weight ratio, excellent thermal performance and, even more importantly with a large volume of snow as a wearing surface, excellent moisture resistive properties.

Eurobond, in Cardiff, were responsible for laminating nearly 1,400 m³ of STYROFOAM into the sandwich panels adding a rebated edge to ensure that the panels were close fitting. Jim McVeigh, Contracts Director, was on site for the duration of their nine-month part of the contract and when asked about the project he commented "It has been an interesting contract with many new challenges. The STYROFOAM core floor panels provided an ideal solution for the unusual environmental conditions."