BDP wins with Kalzip colours at Aintree

BDP specified the stucco embossed Kalzip XT to help roof and clad Aintree's two new grandstands.

When architects the Building Design Partnership were looking for a material to roof and clad Aintree's two new grandstands they put their money on a revolutionary new Kalzip system that certainly proved a winner at this year's Grand National.

Fifty-metre lengths of the Kalzip XT aluminium standing seam, which can be tapered, curved and twisted in 3D shapes, reach from the bottom of the Earl of Derby and Lord Sefton grandstand walls to the peak of the overhanging roofs, curving around the eaves as they near the home straight.

This is punctuated with vertical slots to either side that are animated by cantilevered balconies which overlook the new parade ring, allowing race goers to view events both on the starting and finishing straights and the pre-race parade.

Richard Elsdon of BDP said they specified the stucco embossed Kalzip XT because: "It offered good value for money and a sound technical solution based on previous experience.

It also complies with the life cycle maintenance and costing requirements for the cladding systems.

The stucco provides a suitable, low maintenance finish which will patina naturally over time.

"Our design also required some specialist, non-standard applications which we knew Kalzip would be able to develop with us.

It was one of very few cladding materials capable of being used on the complex geometric forms of the roof and envelope design." Aintree's grandstands were one of the most technically challenging projects to date for Kalzip approved Teamkal contractor Lakesmere who trained their workforce in abseiling techniques to install the sheets at roof level.

Each individual sheet for the 456m area was designed using 3D CAD technology that was also used for the soffits which had to be twisted at different angles to follow the curves of the gutters and fascias.

To complement the aluminium cladding and flashings, timber trellises were installed to the rear grandstand walls to encourage creeping plants to grow and harmonise the design.

This trellis in turn complements the larch boarding of the drum-shaped stairs and toilet towers either side of each grandstand, the middle pair of which guard the central link block - a bow-fronted glazed bridge that crosses the gateway to the racetrack and is capped by three circular peaks of white tensile fabric.

Graham Cleland of Lakesmere said: "We had very limited space to complete the installation works and there was literally no room for error as the bespoke XT sheets had been specially designed for this project.

Accuracy therefore was vital." Through the development of a new generation of roll formers, Kalzip have pioneered the manufacture of XT profiled aluminium sheets.

Malleable, pliable, foldable and flexible, the material is capable of being fabricated to a variety of roof shapes including ellipses, cones, spherical caps, arches, prisms, pyramids and all classical geometries.

The theatre of Aintree's two new grandstands leave the three existing ones standing but helps to justify the course's GBP35million investment in new facilities which as well as the grandstands include a two-storey 1,317m2 block of saddling boxes, jockeys changing rooms, a glass-fronted weighing room and media centre as well as adjacent parade ring.

Design and build contractor Laing O'Rourke began to construct this element and the grandstand groundworks up to pile-caps after the 2005 National, in the first of two 43-week phases split by last year's race.

The grandstands, totalling 13,936m2 of steel and concrete frame with concrete slabs, post-tensioned concrete and pre-cast viewing terraces, were the second phase, with their groundworks temporarily covered with tarmac for last year's season.

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