Lightning strikes an individual blow for Kawneer

Kawneer-approved curtain walling installer Charles Henshaw built facade of a 'highly individual, if not unique' GBP13million office building.

Using a single sub-contractor - Kawneer-approved curtain walling installer Charles Henshaw - to build the facade of a "highly individual, if not unique" GBP13million office building has led to efficiencies and fast-track construction for all involved.

The 10,200m building at the former BAe Systems' Lightning Park (so called because a Lightning jet aircraft was displayed on the corner of the site during its BAe days) now stands on the re-named EHQ site near Edinburgh airport.

The project is nearing completion after a 12-month build by main contractors Laing O'Rourke.

To enable internal work to start early to meet the intensive construction programme temporary weatherproofing was incorporated in selected areas.

Kawneer's AA110 curtain walling was proposed to Michael Laird Architects by Charles Henshaw and is the dominant facade treatment, comprising a mixture of drained and ventilated conventional curtain walling and front-sealed glazing of high solar performance within areas of projecting feature cladding.

The curtain walling was specified with a carefully chosen range of coloured aluminium infill panels together with rainscreen cladding, cassette panelling and 200mm-deep anodised aluminium face caps to give the building its three-dimensional articulated facades.

The regular mullion grid is broken with randomly-located intermediate mullions that modulate the rhythm of glazing.

This is also staggered between floors and punctuated with the coloured panels that are glazed into the curtain walling.

The slender mullion caps are split between floors to give a light feel to the facade.

The building, for which the project managers were Cyril Sweett, has been built speculatively on the site of a two-storey building of similar build and, in fact, re-uses the piled foundations from the previous building, augmented by new ones.

The new steel-framed building is arranged around a central courtyard to provide open-plan office accommodation in a variety of widths ranging from 15.5 metres to 23.5 metres.

Its upper floors are of composite floor slabs while the roof decks for plant and equipment are also of concrete, with lightweight steel-decked roofs being adopted for the upper, non-load bearing roofs.

Clients Premier Property Group briefed Michael Laird Architects to design a masterplan for the entire 44,280m site which would maximise the potential to develop office accommodation within the planning guidelines for the area which forms the gateway to the South Gyle business district.

Michael Laird Architects proposed a group of four buildings with the first building on the footprint of the previous redundant building commencing phase one.

Due to its proximity to the airport, certain planning restrictions were imposed by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Steve Brewer of Michael Laird Architects, who are frequent users of Kawneer systems, said: "The facade was constructed by one sub-contractor.

There are no interfaces with other work packages, leading to efficiency and speed of construction since this was an ambitious, fast-track programme.

"The curtain walling has played a central role in this project.

We have been able to achieve the required aesthetic without difficulty using the Kawneer products.

The buildings were designed and are being constructed to be airtight and will be pressure and thermographically-tested on completion.".

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