Pinnacle House

London, United Kingdom

Information about the reference project

Type of building:	Office and Business
Products:	Façades
Location:	London, United Kingdom
Completion:	2017
Architects:	MATT Architecture
Specialist company:	Structura (UK) Ltd
Picture credits:	© Schüco International KG

Project description

Pinnacle House in Wimbledon was once an unattractive 1980s brick and concrete office block: its transformation into a modern building is, in large part, thanks to the use of systems from Schueco. The stunning new façade is visible from many of the surrounding streets and the extended building now has a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’, in marked contrast to an EPC rating of D in its old incarnation.

Matt Architecture designed the £12million project for their client Aviva Investors and Kingston Estates and wanted to use Schueco. Long-term Schueco Partner, Structura UK Ltd – specialists in curtain wall engineering – became responsible for all aspects of the glazing under the main contract which was completed in early February 2017.

Schüco aluminium systems

Externally, the building is all but unrecognisable after the addition of the three new floors, new cladding, new curtain walling and glazing. Matt Architecture, Structura and Schueco worked together closely on the overall design. John Lacey, Senior partner at Matt Architecture explains: ‘We specified Schueco at an early stage of the design development as the quality of the product is excellent.’

For the main curtain wall, Structura utilised the Schueco FW 50+ façade system – which offers excellent thermal insulation properties – supported with bespoke aerofoil mullion caps with a scalloped internal corner feature.
The pressed metal panels it incorporates were specially designed and produced using 3 mm aluminium sheet with dressed and welded corners, finished in four shades of Anodite metallic Syntha Pulvin, which gradually gets lighter towards the top of the building.

External fins 150 mm in depth provide a degree of solar shading and add definition and interest to the curved façade, all but concealing the faceting of the windows. Elsewhere, existing punched windows have been renovated and re-sprayed in situ.

On the new upper floors, Structura have fitted a Schueco ADS 65 thermally broken door system and Schueco FW 50+ SG system has been used for the ground floor glazed screens. The new roof incorporates eco-friendly ‘green’ roof areas and planted terraces, while the original basement has been reconfigured to accommodate plant machinery and cycle parking.

Sustainably solution

As the clients are a responsible pension fund, improving sustainability ratings were paramount to them.
The architects took the challenge to transform the post-modern concrete frame building into something unrecognisable from the original, which included sustainability to be at the top of the agenda. As part of planning there was a condition that it had to achieve BREEAM ‘Very Good’. With the energy model, the existing building was analysed as well as the new elements. They had to meet quite stringent Part L and ‘U’ value targets for the building.

They set out to mitigate solar gain which is where the fins came into play on the front façade on the curve.
Schueco was able to technically advise Matt Architecture on the thermal performances of the systems.
The replacement of uninsulated brickwork with high-performance double glazing and insulated panels naturally made a big difference to overall energy performance and fulfilling the client’s condition to achieve BREEAM ‘Very Good’.