3-Kawneer Systems Curtain Wall Systems Door systems News 230108

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Kawneer Systems - Quick and easy (on the eye) for Brunel

Curtain walling and windows from Kawneer have helped YRM Architects with a quick and easy (on the eye) solution for a prospective new school of architecture at Brunel University.
The Michael Sterling building was originally intended as the new School of Architecture – a new faculty for the university – but is currently being used as a civil engineering extension to the School of Engineering and Design.
Kawneer’s modular PF (picture-frame) curtain walling system and AA®600 thermally enhanced and ACS 51W windows, as well as AA®605 swing doors and ACS 40FDG double glazed framing, were used on two quite distinct elements of the elevation - the bay windows and “hole in wall” or “punchole” windows.
Terry Buckingham, project manager for Kawneer-approved installer Architectural Glazed Facades, said: “The PF curtain walling system proved to be a quick and simple system to use especially as it allowed all of the window units to be fabricated and glazed as finished units off site.
“This enabled a quick installation of the window units into the prepared barwork to provide an enclosed weatherproof envelope.”
The £8.3 million building comprises design studios, lecturers’ studies, atrium exhibition space and a university chancellery over 5,000m² on four levels which was the maximum area restriction set by the planners who also imposed conditions on materials and colours.
Architect Nigel Wooding of YRM Architects said: “Brunel wanted to maximise the space with design studio areas and also to accommodate the university chancellery, a publishing and visualisation studio and a supermarket which was displaced when the existing buildings were demolished.
“We developed the brief together with Brunel and then created concept designs for the new building. We had to work within a height limit of four storeys and the new requirements of Part L of the Building Regulations.”
The 16-month construction by main contractor Pierse Contracting (Southern) under a design and build contract used a modular reinforced in-situ concrete frame, finished externally by self-coloured rendered facades with curtain walling bay windows and internally, by exposed blockwork walls and concrete soffits. These internal finishes contribute to the thermal mass and the building’s ability to ventilate naturally.
The Kawneer systems are a “major feature” of the elevations that contrast sharply between solid (render) and glass (curtain walling on the bay windows).
Nigel Wooding added: “We particularly liked the clean lines and minimal sections of the Kawneer systems. Specifically the PF system that provides a consistent elevation without highlighting the fixed and openable windows. This has been very successful. The Kawneer detailing looks considered and refined.”

Email: tracy@tlcpr.co.uk