Gull wing roof created for Blackburn apartments

Cheshire Roof Trusses, in conjunction with Wolf Systems, has been involved in the design, fabrication and installation of a striking gull wing roof for an apartment building in Blackburn, Lancashire.

Lock Mill is a four-storey structure, by Bryant Homes, on a brownfield site to offer residents stylish waterfront accommodation.

While Calderpeel has been the architectural practice leading the project, Cheshire Roof Trusses is the Wolf licensed manufacturer responsible for the supply and fix package of double-profile, engineered timber trusses.

The design encompassed a total of over 400 gull wing trusses with a 16-metre plus span.

Each features a relatively low pitch of just six degrees and is weathered with a 1.5 mm thick Sarnafil single ply membrane.

This is laid on top of 100 mm Kingspan insulation and marine plywood decking with a vapour barrier.

Due to the exposed location of the medium-rise, residential blocks alongside the Liverpool to Leeds canal, and the inclusion of a 2.5-metre overhang to the roof, the designers have had to tie the wall plate and roof trusses down to the third-storey level of the main structure.

There are also steel columns rising from ground level that had to be terminated within the roof structure.

Then, during the fix stage of its contract, Cheshire Roof Trusses were also required to box around and span the tops of three lift shafts as well as other service provisions.

At the same time as the gull wing roof to the main building was being constructed, Cheshire Roof Trusses supplied and installed another 400 more conventional trussed rafters for three adjacent blocks; all of which had linked, low angle pyramidal roofs.

Bryant Homes' Lock Mill development ably demonstrates the potential of trussed timber rafters to shape ultra-modern roofs of any configuration, as well as more traditional.

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