1960's Office Block Transformed

Shackerley's Ceramic Granite Cladding has helped to transform the 1964 building, (formerly known as Brabazon House) from an eyesore into one of Surrey's most attractive new office developments.

Shackerley Holdings Group Limited has helped to deliver a new external envelope and contemporary streamlined aesthetic for the redevelopment of a 1960's six-storey office complex in Redhill, Surrey.

Shackerley supplied 1500m2 of hardwearing ceramic granite cladding panels for the £9m RedCentral redevelopment project, undertaken by EPR Architects Ltd for property developers UK and European Investments Limited.

The cladding panels, in an unpolished natural finish, have helped to transform the 1964 building, (formerly known as Brabazon House) from a much criticised town centre eyesore into one of Surrey's most attractive new office developments.

UK and European purchased the Redhill town centre site in October 2001.

The office block was in a serious state of disrepair and dilapidation having been left vacant for many years.

Planning consent was granted to redevelop the site to provide approximately 58,000 sq ft of fully specified office space with an additional 8000 sq ft of retail space.

The aesthetic appearance of RedCentral was critical to the client and their architects.

Ideally, natural stone would have been used as an exterior finish but the costs were prohibitive.

Three other types of cladding were put forward for consideration, namely render, metal and terracotta but none were ideal for the project.

It was during these deliberations that the £21 million extension to the Hilton Hotel at Gatwick was completed - the first UK example of a building constructed with a fully vitrified ceramic granite rainscreen cladding system.

The sleek aesthetic achieved by the Manser Practice for the Hilton Group led to the specification of this hardwearing and versatile material for RedCentral's exterior envelope.

Renowned for its intrinsic strength, ceramic granite is manufactured from a blend of selected and refined clays, quartz feldspars and metal oxides, formed under 12000 tonnes of pressure and fired at 1260oC.

Whilst the resulting panels can reproduce the beauty and variation of granite or marble, they are exceptionally strong and free from the fissures, flaws and other weak points which can reduce the strength of quarried materials.

Being comparatively lightweight, fully resistant to frost, heat, pollution, acid and alkali erosion, light and UV radiation, they are ideally suited for use in cladding applications.

Shackerley was eventually contracted to supply 1500m2 of 600mm x 300mm ceramic granite slabs in a buff coloured unpolished finish for the RedCentral project.

The objective was to create the look and performance of natural stone but at a fraction of the cost.

The long awaited demolition of Brabazon House commenced in January 2003, much to the relief of Redhill's inhabitants.

The transformation into the new RedCentral office complex was completed in August 2004.

James Brooke-Webb, Director of UK and European Investments Limited, was impressed with the effect: "Ceramic granite has delivered the aesthetic finish we wanted.

It has given us the look and feel of natural stone but on a cost effective basis.

We're delighted with the result.".

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