Tests that make a difference!

The Shristi hotel complex, not far from the airport of Kolkata, the biggest city in the eastern part of India, was designed by Spanish architects Cervera & Pioz. It consists of two 35-storey towers around which a shopping and leisure centre will be built with restaurants and cinemas. One of the towers is a 5-star hotel comprising 323 rooms while the other contains apartments.

TECHNAL won the contract to supply aluminium products with its clients Nitson & Amitsu for the hotel and Glass Wall Systems for the residential tower. This represents more than 55 tons of aluminium: 800 TOPAZE fixed frame + bottom-hung sash composite assemblies to provide ventilation for the hotel and 500 TOPAZE fixed frames for the residential tower.

The competition was won with an aluminium solution that met the architects' aesthetic and technical requirements, especially for wind resistance of up to 310 km/h! This performance was demonstrated via tests carried out on a full-scale mock up of the frames. These air, water and wind tests were required by the architects who are aiming for the LEED environmental label certification. They were carried out in accordance with the standards required by the American organisation ASTM. Ian Smith, Manager at Sapa Building Systems India, Sonesh Gukati, Director of Nitson & Amitsu and two representatives of the Shristi hotel were present at the testing which took place at the Technal Innovation & Test Center in Toulouse (France).

As well as the performance they'd observed, they were pleased with how the testing was organised, with a mock up manufactured and installed on the test bench in advance so that they could watch the tests in real time.