Unitised curtain walling from Wicona Projects has been specified for a landmark 18-storey office tower in the centre of
The unitised façade is being designed and overseen by Wicona Projects and fabricated
by Norking Aluminium in a £3.2m contract.
Developed by the award-winning Property Alliance Group and constructed by Russells
Construction, the £17m AXIS project is one of the largest ever speculative developments
in Manchester.
Designed by HKR Architects and due for completion towards the end of 2009, the
iconic scheme will provide around 72,000sqft of office space in a fully glazed
tower, offering stunning 360˚ panoramic views across the city.
The building occupies a highly constrained and challenging site, close to tram
lines and railway tracks and oversailing two busy highways and the Bridgewater
Canal. The specification of a unitised solution for the project will eliminate
the need for scaffolding and the storage of cladding materials and glass handling
on site – a major advantage for restricted city centre sites. This has allowed
the floor plate of the building to be maximised whilst meeting the architects’
requirements for a highly glazed, transparent tower.
More than 4,600sqm of Wicona’s unitised curtain walling will be manufactured
off site by Norking and installed using a mono-rail system for the faster completion
of a watertight envelope to each floor and earlier fitting out. This will reduce
the time on site by around 40 per cent.
Commenting on the choice of unitised curtain walling for this scheme, Phil Jay,
Project Manager at Russells Construction, said, “A unitised façade was our only
option because the site has no access and so scaffolding is impossible. It also
allows the curtain walling to be completed off site, which speeds up installation.
This reduces time on site which is more cost efficient.”
Paul Norbury, Project Architect at HKR Architects, said, “Unitised curtain walling
was the only solution for this project. The approach really lends itself to tall
buildings and difficult city centre sites such as this.”
“The Wicona system will carry double height spans of recessed aluminium panels,
which are technically challenging. It also gave us the design flexibility to
specify structurally bonded glazing and create a slick, sheer envelope for building.
The glazing is floor to floor, with no caps or spandrel panels, giving the building
a full height taught skin.”
Other architectural features of this striking building include an illuminated
plant room on the 18th floor to give the tower a glowing ‘top hat’ effect, and a large external roof
terrace. The scheme will also feature the world’s largest single advertising
space – a 51m high LED screen to display campaigns for the council, building occupiers
and other advertisers.
The advantages of the unitised approach include significant reductions in programme time, improved site safety, earlier fitting out and a faster return on investment for the developer. The quality and performance of the façade panels are high because the units are completed off site in a controlled factory environment. Panel sizes of up to 4m x 4m can easily be accommodated, there are cost savings on site preliminaries and scaffolding, and constrained sites can be developed whilst maximising the building footprint.
-ENDS-
Editors’ Notes
1. The project team for AXIS is:
Developer: Property Alliance Group
Main contractor: Russells Construction
Architects: HKR Architects
Structural engineers: Capita Symonds
Façade contractor: Norking Aluminium
Unitised curtain wall: Wicona Projects
3. Wicona Projects is part of Hydro Building Systems, which also offers the Technal
brand of fully integrated aluminium ‘stick’curtain walling, window and door systems.
4. If you wish to publish a telephone number for further information, the number for Wicona Projects is 01924 232323. Please do not print the agency’s number.
