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Kingspan Off-Site Façade Rainscreen System used on 16 and 27 Storey Liverpool Residential and Office

30 Oct 2006

Kingspan Off-Site's Façade Systems have been selected for the £60 million Sentinel Unity development, the first major buildings on the Liverpool waterfront since it was named City of Culture 2008.

The development involves a 27-storey residential and 16-storey office buildings, which is the first Grade A office to be built in Liverpool. The building complex will form a striking landmark on the Waterfront, which has just been awarded World Heritage Status. The private housing element includes six cantilevered penthouse suites with views over the River Mersey.

Developers for the scheme are Rumford Investments, Architects are Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) and Laing O'Rourke is the design and build contractor. Kingspan Off-Site have been awarded the façade contract by Dane Architectural Ltd., Newcastle who are specialist building façade constructors.

The Architectural Façade System will be manufactured off-site at Kingspan 12,000 m2 facility at Sherburn, North Yorkshire. The project involves the design and manufacture of 1,500 unitised frame assemblies up to 5.2 metres wide by 3.2 metres high. The unitised frames incorporate Kingspan K15 phenolic insulation and a carrier bracket system which retains the outer aluminium rainscreen.

Schuco aluminium windows are integrated into the façade system units. Fire engineering solutions at intermediate floors and compartmentation junctions utilise Hilti Firestop Systems which also provides Building Regulation Part E, acoustic separation where necessary.

The unitised façade frame assemblies are directly transported to site and then craned onto the face of the concrete framed building and connected with locator brackets to the main structure. The site installation method allows rapid closure of the building accelerating internal fit-out, building services and project hand over.

Work on the building has begun and is scheduled for completion in Autumn 2006.

Kingspan Off-Site are currently launching there Architectural Façade Systems which provide 160 façade construction methods and solution variants, plus the following performance options:

  • Thermal Performance:
    - 0.35 W/m2K
    - 0.30 W/m2K
    - 0.25 W/m2K
    - 0.20 W/m2K
  • Fire Performance:
    - 30/15 mins Insulation and Integrity
    - 30/30 mins Insulation and Integrity
    - 90/90 mins Insulation and Integrity
    - 120/120 mins Insulation and Integrity
  • Accoustic Performance:
    - Part E - Building Regulations
    - BB93 - Education Buildings
    - HTM2045 - Healthcare Buildings

The façade range is suitable for 'foundation to roof' applications onto steel or concrete framed buildings up to any height. The systems have been developed and accredited for use with brick, block, masonry, renders, rainscreens (ten), insulated panels and dado wall, all of which are included in the Design Guide that features over 600 construction details. The details include integrated construction solutions in conjunction with foundations, intermediate floors, eaves/roofs, windows, doors, briese soleil, balconies, horizontal and vertical interfaces and other façade and fenestration features.

System performance data for structural, thermal, fire, accoustic, durability, robustness and internal linings are also included in the Design Guide.

The façade frames incorporate integrated building services highways for power, voice and data cabling and plumbing.

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