With ever-increasing market demands for more robust and flexible façade systems, Kawneer, the leading manufacturer of architectural aluminium glazing systems has launched a new version of its successful AA®100 and AA®110 curtain wall products. In addition to a +/- 5mm building expansion joint for its SSG curtain wall variant and a higher weight capacity for its capped option, one of the key enhancements is a concealed vent option within the product to help produce a beautiful, finished aesthetic to a building’s façade. Designed specifically for the AA®100 and AA®110 systems in either capped or SSG variants, the concealed vent option utilises a structurally bonded glazed unit and slim aluminium profiles, allowing Kawneer curtain wall systems to be installed with no visible external framing. This provides designers, specifiers and architects with the flexibility and freedom to create a flush finish to the external facade, while satisfying ventilation requirements for optimised comfort.   Contemporary building façade design also requires larger glass panes, with unobstructed views and increased natural light. The new enhancements result in the AA®110 being able to accommodate glazing up to a 50mm depth in the capped system and withstand a maximum weight capacity of 180kg. Available as a top hung vent or a parallel opening window, both types can be manually operated or motorised, using neatly concealed chain drives and integrated locking drives to achieve a seamless internal finish.      The AA®110 concealed vent has undergone full CWCT Sequence B testing as part of a larger curtain wall assembly, with proven weather performance. Furthermore, the window has been RC2 security tested to EN 1627, which is the same classification as the existing AA®100 and AA®110 curtain wall systems.   As with the AA®100 system, the AA®110 offers a range of construction methods, including zone-drainage and mullion-drainage. Also, advanced thermal break technologies provide superior thermal performance that meet and exceed building regulations.   Kawneer’s Technical Director, Gary Ledger commented: “Together with our new +/- 5mm SSG expansion joint and increased weight capacity, the concealed vent option subsequently gives architects ultimate design freedom with our enhanced AA®110 curtain wall product by combining exceptional product performance with visual aesthetics and occupancy comfort.” 

Fritted glazing is the star at Manchester’s Citylabs 2.0. Two types of curtain walling by leading UK manufacturer Kawneer met a quartet of criteria for a new building at the gateway to Europe’s largest clinical-academic campus. Kawneer’s AA®110 SSG (Structurally Silicone Glazed) and AA®100 capped aluminium curtain walling almost completely wraps the new £25 million Citylabs 2.0 development within the Oxford Road Corridor innovation district in Manchester. Citylabs 2.0 is part of a £95 million expansion to the Citylabs campus which is located at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust’s (MFT) Oxford Road hub and is a partnership between MFT and the UK’s leading property provider to the science and tech sector, Bruntwood SciTech.                                                                                                                  The project builds on the success of Citylabs 1.0 which opened in 2014 and is fully-let, and Citylabs 2.0 will provide world-class lab and office space for global diagnostics company QIAGEN who have 100% pre-let the building for their Global Centre of Excellence for Precision Medicine. Kawneer’s AA®110 SSG curtain walling with flush silicone sightlines has been used throughout, while the AA®100 version with 50mm sightlines features on the ground floor entrance of the 8,500m2 state-of-the-art building designed by frequent Kawneer specifiers, architects Sheppard Robson. The practice conceived Citylabs 2.0 as a block of accommodation with one elevational treatment, with recessed areas carved out of the main block clad in alternative materials. To realise this concept, the main body was formed in the Kawneer AA®110 flush cap-less curtain walling, with a digitally printed design to the glazing. The concrete frame of the building provides clear open floor plates to support different work typologies while the post-pensioned floor slabs provide clear, uninterrupted soffits for ease of services distribution. The recesses at level 5 and the plant room are clad in ribbed fibre cement panels, the recess on the Hathersage Road elevation is clad in louvres, and the recess to the main entrance is the Kawneer full-height AA®100 curtain walling with accentuated vertical caps. The set back edges, and entrance canopy soffit, are clad in a bright coloured red anodized metal panel. Sheppard Robson associate Mary-Ann Crompton said: “The sub-contractor chose Kawneer as the best product to realise the design intent and it achieved the required performance specification in terms of aesthetics, thermal, acoustic and movement requirements.” The AA®110 SSG curtain walling, with its wider 65mm back box, is typically specified to minimise building movement and at Citylabs 2.0 was complemented by the fritted glazing and spandrel panels. “The existing adjacent buildings are Grade 2 listed and the cutbacks to Citylabs 2.0 have been organised to respond to the location and scale of them. The etched design to the glazing refers to details within the retained chapel which is to be refurbished as part of further future developments for Citylabs 3.0,” said Mary-Ann. She added: “The glazed elements of the curtain walling form the major component of the elevational design and has helped to fulfil the aesthetic aspirations for the project. In addition, aluminium is totally recyclable and is therefore a good material to use. This characteristic helps towards achieving a sustainable design.” The Kawneer systems were installed for main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine over six months by teams of up to eight people from Kawneer-approved specialist sub-contractor and dealer Bennett Architectural Aluminium Solutions. Director Rob Bennett said: “The project was fully enclosed in Kawneer curtain wall. It was a large project for us and had to be installed within 25 weeks. The AA®110 curtain walling allowed increased building movement capability. “The glass on it was quite unique. We worked with the architect and designed a frit pattern that was used as part of solar control. It has a very unique whirl and is quite striking.” Mary-Ann said: “We have used Kawneer on many of our projects over the years and have found that the technical and sales departments are very helpful with providing information at the early stages of design.” Businesses which locate to Citylabs have direct access to MFT’s specialist clinical resources and expertise from researchers, clinicians and procurement teams as well as Bruntwood SciTech’s specialist growth support and events programme, including access to funding, talent, new markets and academic connections.

High-performance curtain wall and door products feature on the refurbished ‘commercial to premium student accommodation’ development. Architectural glazing systems developed and supplied by leading UK manufacturer Kawneer successfully met a trio of criteria for the £50 million award-winning redevelopment of two existing commercial office blocks into premium student accommodation. A large part of the façade at Crown Place, formerly St Stephens Towers, in Norwich, features Kawneer’s AA®100 curtain wall system with 50mm sightlines and AA®720 top-hung glazed-in and AA®720 standalone windows. Two types of Kawneer commercial entrance doors also feature – the thermally superior AA®720 and the heavy-duty 190 series – to meet the required thermal, acoustic and aesthetic performance. The two eight-storey towers now feature an additional floor and a new link building between them, providing 705 premium student accommodation units including “twodios” (for two people sharing a kitchenette) above live retail units. Main contractor RG Carter Ltd initially built the office blocks in the early 1970s and they returned to refurbish them to ease the high demand for purpose-built student accommodation in Norwich city centre. Crown Place also features high-specification communal spaces including games rooms, cinema, gym, roof terrace and café. The entire building was re-clad in Kawneer’s AA®100 curtain wall system, fabricated and installed by a team of six from approved specialist sub-contractor and Kawneer dealer Drayton Windows on a logistically challenging site next to a high-traffic city centre location and above busy occupied retail units. Architects ECE Westworks were appointed by client Crown Student Living to transform the prominent and unoccupied towers and ancillary buildings into a justified gateway building that provides part of a major investment and regeneration to the local area. As well as the addition of a new storey to each tower, their design incorporated additional storeys to the existing wings of the steel-frame building and two new atria opened up, down to the level of the double basement which comprises a large part of the 0.476 hectare site. ECE Westworks associate Andy Bremerkamp said the Kawneer systems had been chosen by RG Carter Ltd and approved by the client and the practice which has used them on previous office and residential projects. “They met the required thermal, acoustic and aesthetic performance for a variety of curtain wall sizes and have been used to articulate the façade as a response to the large monolithic existing building form,” he said. “The curtain walling interfaces with the metal cladding, with powder coated metal reveals. It was important to make the building of this scale as sustainable as possible. The client is very happy with the finished building.” Crown Place, Norwich won ECE Westworks a RICS Social Impact Award 2020 and a shortlisting in the Student Accommodation Conference and Awards 2019 as well as RG Carter Ltd a gold award in the 2020 Considerate Constructors Scheme.

Aluminium glazing systems by Kawneer feature at Welsh University’s new creative and digital centre. Architectural glazing systems by leading UK manufacturer Kawneer played a key role in a new state-of-the-art building which is at the heart of Wales’ creative and digital future. Kawneer’s AA®110 curtain walling, AA®720 doors and window vents, and series 190 doors feature on the £10 million new creative and digital centre, Canolfan S4C Yr Egin, located on the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s (UWTSD) Carmarthen campus. Specified by BDP architects, they were installed over 10 months by a team of up to eight from Kawneer-approved dealer APiC UK for main contractor Kier Construction. The AA®110 zone-drained curtain walling with 65mm sightlines was used alongside Kawneer’s thermally superior AA®720 doors and series 190 automatic entrance doors on the ground floor which houses a spacious public café alongside performance space and auditorium as well as resources for community groups and offices for the building’s administrative staff. The AA®110 system also features on the first floor, which is let to the centre’s main anchor tenant – Welsh language broadcaster S4C – for its headquarters (corporate, communications, finance, business affairs and legal departments) alongside actuator-operated AA®720 top-hung, open-out window vents. And it also features on the third floor, which is let to a number of different companies working in the creative and digital sector, as well as on a clerestory lantern above an atrium which overarches the three storeys. Many of these tenants will offer work experience to UWTSD students, allowing them to make the most of the university’s connections during their studies. BDP’s award-winning design was based on the close relationship between the university, prospective tenants of the centre and the wider community. This relationship, or trinity, is reflected in its form – a simple triangle that grows from Carmarthenshire’s soil, a titular reference to Yr Egin – a Welsh play on words referencing energy and birth. The layout of the building encourages collaboration, communication and interaction between all users of the building, where initial ideas can be shared and developed – an incubator for the establishment of new companies and a breeding ground for a new generation of creative and technical people. Externally, the theme of trinity is expressed through the use of differing materials in a tripartite arrangement – a dynamic, reflective volume is seen to float over a solid plinth at ground level and a translucent intermediate layer reinforces the distinction between plinth and reflective object. The 3,600m2 building is linked to the main campus by a large public square which allows for the staging of a variety of outdoor activities in its stunning Carmarthenshire location between the Pembrokeshire coast and the Brecon Beacons. On the use of Kawneer’s systems, BDP’s project architect noted: “As most of the façade comprises curtain wall we needed a system that could meet a wide range of performance requirements. We specified Kawneer due to their extensive range of features which met the functional and aesthetic demands of the project. “The Kawneer curtain walling had a key role in the project. As a naturally ventilated building it has an active façade that reacts to changing environmental conditions. The Kawneer system houses the various components that protect the interior from the elements while allowing air to flow through. “A key element of the building’s aesthetic was to create a distinct character for each level of the building – a challenge for a facade almost entirely constructed from curtain wall. This challenge was met by the extensive range of Kawneer features, especially the fin capping, which was vital to the characterisation of the different elements of the facade.” The durability, strength to weight ratio and life cycle benefits of aluminium were key factors in the consideration of Kawneer’s system when specifying the external envelope. APiC UK senior sales and estimating technician Andrew Finn said: “Working with Kawneer we were able to offer solutions for all the differing project requirements including profiled vertical faced caps with new dies for the 100mm and 150mm profiles to the ground-floor curtain wall which was specified to accommodate the vertical movement of the building. “The 100mm, 150mm and 200mm vertical faced caps provide a strong vertical emphasis to the curtain wall. The use of differing sizes and finishes to these are designed to provide a ‘flickering effect”. Canolfan S4C Yr Egin was opened by the Rt Hon Carwyn Jones AM, first Minister of Wales, in October 2018 and has since won a RICS Wales award for best commercial building. RICS judges said the team behind the project – including Mott McDonald, BDP, Rural Office for Architecture, and the University of Wales Trinity St David – had succeeded in designing a scheme that encouraged occupiers to collaborate, network and exchange information and ideas, to innovate and create jobs. For further information about Canolfan S4C Yr Egin, please visit https://yregin.cymru/