Six large television studios are being constructed as part of the project, including a 12,500ft2 one that will be the largest in western Europe. Like the radio studios, these are built as a box within a box, albeit on a much bigger scale. Each secondary steel box sits on big acoustic dampers; a studio for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra sits on hydraulic jacks to ensure no noise can penetrate from adjoining studios.The space between the steel frame has been infilled with dense concrete blocks laid on their sides. "We looked at all sorts of ways of building these walls - insitu concrete, precast units - but at the end of the day, blockwork was the cheapest and there was no lead-in time or design needed," says Martin Gregory, Bovis Lend Lease's operation director. "We'd have probably adopted a different strategy 12 months ago because of the shortage of bricklayers."
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