Kawneer unitised curtain walling used in Glasgow

Unitised curtain walling from Kawneer has met criteria for a Grade A office building in the heart of Glasgow's international financial services district.

The Kawneer unitised AA201 system met at least a trio of requirements for programme issues as the use of scaffolding was negated, for low air permeability, and for meeting BDP's design intent for a frameless, structurally silicone glazed (SSG) facade.

The Capella tower was the last of six buildings designed for Glasgow's mixed-use Atlantic Quay development on the site of a former tobacco warehouse district.

Capella is surrounded on three sides by suspended concrete slabs over basement car parking that would not take the load of scaffolding required to construct a traditional stick curtain walling system to 11 storeys, while cantilevering the scaffold from upper floors would have extended the construction programme.

The pre-glazed AA201 unitised panels can be installed from within the building without the need for scaffolding, meaning this method of installation not only reduced construction time and costs but also the safety risks associated with erecting and working from scaffolding.

Steel framed with a slip-form concrete core and composite slab upper floors and roof, the building utilised Kawneer's unitised curtain walling on levels one to nine and the glazing system was installed on the lower floors while the upper floor slabs were still under construction.

The brief was for a speculative office building capable of sub-division into separate tenancies on each floor and into two separate tenancies per floor, with basement car parking and retail space at ground level.

One of the first commercial offices subject to the new Section 6 requirements of the Scottish Building Standards (The English Part L2 equivalent), the building also uses Kawneer's traditional stick-system AA110 fully-capped and AA110 structural silicone glazed curtain walling on the ground and tenth floors.

Curtain walling is the dominant cladding to the building, the glazed elements interact with granite cladding and aluminium rainscreen.

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