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« Kings Waterfront, Liverpool »
Friday, March 5, 2010 at 3:14AM CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW/DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY IN PDF FORMAT
A prestigious new addition to Liverpool’s landmark developments has been combined with the quality and versatility of Ash & Lacy’s AshTech rainscreen cladding systems.
Managed by contractors Bovis Lend Lease and SCC Ltd, the Kings Waterfront Scheme, at an historic and high profile setting near to Albert Dock and adjacent to the World Heritage Site on the Mersey riverfront, will play an important part in Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008. The site, once completed, will attract visitors from around the world, with the Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre as the centrepiece, surrounded by residential, hotel, office, retail, leisure, community and open spaces.
As the defining structure on Liverpool’s waterfront, the brief for this scheme demanded the highest quality of design and materials. It was therefore no surprise that Ash & Lacy were chosen by main project architects Wilkinson Eyre, to provide over 850m² marine quality, anodised, vertical rainscreen panels for the multi-storey car park onsite. The car park combines perfectly flat AshTech panels in a staggered block layout, with a silver satin finish, in-keeping with the rest of the project.
The situation of the Kings Waterfront development – on the Mersey estuary, demanded materials which could demonstrate a high level of durability and sustain the effects of such a marine environment. Aluminium AshTech panels, a highly sustainable building material, protect the building from wind, noise, rain and Ultra Violet light, as well as contributing towards the overall thermal performance of the structure. These features, combined with an anodised coating, meant that the panels were also resilient to the salt-laden atmosphere.
Anodising transforms the softer aluminium substrate surface into a hard, protective coating, which is resistant to salt corrosion, further prolonging the life of the building in such surroundings. The anodisation process increases job completion time but was necessary due to the close proximity with which the building stands to the estuary.
AshTech is increasingly used on prestigious newbuild and refurbishment projects where high aesthetics considerations and ease and speed of installation and guaranteed long-term performance are of paramount importance. One of AshTech’s benefits is that it is perfectly flat, yet lends itself to manipulation and can be curved or shaped easily to meet many design specifications. It also renders a high acoustic performance, reducing airborne sound transmission by 25 dB and offers exceptional vibration dampening capabilities.