One of the most distinctive buildings in Liverpool has been completed. Nicknamed the ‘Bling Bling’ building, the scheme on Hanover Street has been designed by architects CZWG and incorporates innovative use of curtain walling from Technal.
The five-storey, 2000sqm office and retail development sits between two classic Edwardian listed buildings on a prominent corner site and forms part of the £920m 42-acre Grosvenor regeneration project which is transforming the centre of the city – the biggest project of its kind in Europe. It is also the new headquarters for the celebrity hairdresser, Herberts, providing a glass and marble salon and hairdressing academy.
Fabricated and installed by Solaglas Contracting North, Technal’s grid and curved curtain walling was used for the building envelope, finished in anodised bronze and glazed in green tinted low E glass.
Architects CZWG specified a specially extruded 114mm deep cap for the vertical and horizontal sections to accentuate the curtain wall grid and provide an effective contrast to the copper-clad projecting ‘pods’ over the entrance to the building and on each façade. Laser cut end caps for the flat face at the intersection of the mullions and transoms were finished in anodised gold, to striking effect.
Technal’s curved curtain walling follows the line of the corner site and top hung concealed vents in large 1.5m by 1.7m spans naturally ventilate the building whilst providing a continuous glazed façade.
Commenting on the project, David Donachie, Project Architect at CZWG, said, “We were very impressed with the curtain walling system, which fully satisfied our design aims for the scheme.”
“We wanted to create a statement building and the Technal system allowed us to incorporate some innovative design detailing, such as the gold end caps. We expressed the curtain walling with a bespoke profile to ‘play off’ the effect of the gold projecting pods, and the concealed vents to the vision areas met our requirements for larger spans.”
As part of its ongoing product development programme, Technal, part of Hydro Building Systems, has recently launched the MX curtain walling suite – the first in the UK to offer such a wide range of design options from a single grid. This gives specifiers the opportunity to vary the appearance of the building envelope, with all the advantages of one fully integrated system – consistent site lines and interfaces, simplified specification, and ease of fabrication and installation, cost efficiency and reduced time on site.
The design options in the MX suite include low to high rise curtain walling, MX Trame Verticale and Horizontale, visible grid, faceted, structural, beaded and sloped glazing.
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