The tallest project in the UK to feature Technal’s architectural aluminium glazing systems – and the highest new residential building in the North West – has been completed.

Developed by the Beetham Organisation, the 30-storey flagship Beetham Tower is located 360ft above Liverpool’s famous waterfront, providing outstanding views across the region and towards the Welsh mountains.

The scheme, built by Carillion and designed by Aedas Architects, provides 126 contemporary one and two-bed city centre apartments and nine exclusive duplex penthouses. It is linked to a new 200-bed Radisson SAS hotel.

The £1.5m glazing contract was carried out by Airedale Architectural, a division of Airedale Glass & Glazing, in partnership with Technal.

The tower features 1,800 sq metres of Technal’s MC facetted curtain walling to the full height of this striking building, and 130 FXi46 aluminium casement windows. The windows were inserted into pre-cast concrete panels off-site and craned into position to significantly reduce the programme time and improve the accuracy and quality of installation. This highly innovative method of construction, which was also used for the adjacent hotel, removed the requirement for external scaffolding.

The FXi46 windows use a specially adapted heavy duty section to meet the wind loadings for the tower. The system was tested at Technal’s UK product development centre in Leeds and achieved in excess of 2000Pa for wind resistance and 600Pa for water tightness. Commenting on the glazing systems, Helen Donleavy, Project Architect at Aedas, said, ‘Technal’s systems met our requirements for acoustics and thermal efficiency and are performing well. As with the rest of the building, the glazing systems were completed on time and on budget.’

The FXi46 window is part of Technal’s recently expanded and fully integrated FXi casement suite. Available in a wide choice of configurations and three module sizes, 46mm, 52mm and 65mm, FXi uses a highly efficient flush polyamide thermal break to deliver enhanced thermal performance to meet the current Building Regulations. The system can be inserted into curtain walling or used as punched hole, composite or ribbon windows.

Technal’s MC curtain walling range allows architects to explore a wide variety of shapes and forms for the building envelope Options include tilt/turn and top hung concealed windows, facetted and sloped roof glazing, and high-rise grid curtain walls.

Source

Glass Age