The £72 million Museum of Liverpool, situated on the Mann Island
site, alongside the historic Albert Dock, boasts some interesting
design features, such as its distinctive limestone cladding and an
installation of automated Roller Blinds by Levolux.
The world's first national museum devoted to the history of a
regional city, the Museum of Liverpool is a landmark UK development,
sitting within a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Originally designed by
Danish architect, 3XN and due to open in summer 2011, the building’s
ultra-modern design features inclined and elevated platforms that
gradually form a sculptural iconic structure.
A focal point of the building, with its prominent, inclined glazed
elevation is the Museum’s Wondrous Place City gallery, which
overlooks the river Mersey to the south. The floor to ceiling
glazing, measures approximately 28 metres in width and 8 metres in
height.
To help overcome the potential risk of excessive glare and solar
heat gain within the Wondrous Place gallery, Levolux was approached
to develop a custom internal Solar Shading solution, incorporating
it’s radio-controlled, motorised Roller Blinds.
In total, Levolux installed 15 fabric Roller Blinds, each measuring
1500mm wide, with a drop of almost 9 metres. The highly technical
Blinds feature an efficient charcoal fabric, with an openness factor
of 10%, which is skilfully inclined vertically and horizontally. The
complete system effectively reduces glare levels and limits the
impact of solar heat gain within the building, particularly during
the summer months.
The custom design incorporates innovative ‘zipped’ side channels,
which grip the edges of the fabric, allowing it to be raised and
lowered to screen the glazed panels. This improves the performance
of the blinds and enables staff to adjust daylight levels in the
gallery.
The motorised Roller Blinds are linked together in a group using
Levolux’s standalone programmable control system. This allows all of
the Blinds to be operated together, automatically. Blinds can be
raised or lowered in response to changing daylight levels, detected
by an external light sensor, in accordance with one of 6 automatic
commands or as required manually, by someone entering a valid PIN on
an integral wireless keypad.
Like all Solar Shading systems from Levolux, the Roller Blinds used
on this project are backed by the company’s design, manufacture and
installation package.
The Museum of Liverpool is a stunning new addition to the city’s
famous waterfront and its vibrant culture, and thanks to the custom
Solar Shading solution from Levolux, a new light will shine on
Liverpool’s extraordinary history.
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