Due to the property’s prominent corner location, its façade has a major impact on the surrounding area and forms a gateway to the »City of London«. The existing façade was dismantled and a new outer envelope made of prefabricated, tapered precast façade units and large windows has been mounted in front of the load-bearing structure with pinpoint accuracy. To make the building appear light despite its size, the rhythm of the façade has been designed in such a way that it seems to defy the laws of load transfer. There are fewer of the seemingly solid stone elements towards the front corner of the building, while the window openings become larger. The glass façade units were designed using the Schüco FW 50+ mullion-transom system for curtain walls as well as the FW 60+ SG façade with an all-glass look. The glass includes 3000 m2of sun shading glazing and special spandrel glazing made by the manufacturer AGC Glass Europe; needless to say, the thermal and acoustic properties are outstanding. The ADS 70 HD heavy-duty door system from Schüco was chosen for the large glass doors, which can withstand heavy loads in the long term. The particular challenges faced by the façade fabricator Anglian Architectural, which custom-made the Schüco systems, included the tapered shape of the precast façade units as well as the façade-mounted bronze louvre blades, which converge at a point above the precast lintels on the top floor. In both cases, this resulted in the utmost precision being required when installing the systems, and some of the glass could only be installed from the inside using special glass manipulators. But the result is impressive: there’s nothing to stop the 50-year-old office building from enjoying yet another lifecycle.

Source: Profile magazine, issue 28

Download the profile 28 here (pdf, 8.0 MB)