Kawneer glazing helps Manchester with a first

Elements from all of Kawneer’s architectural glazing systems portfolio have been used on a wide range of applications in a city’s new neighbourhood – the £500 million First Street Manchester.
 
The leading UK manufacturer’s AA®100 mullion-drained curtain walling, swing doors and AA®541 top-hung casement windows for high levels of natural ventilation have been used on the 279 individual luxury studios of the premier 11-storey VITA student accommodation from Select Property Group.
 
This features blocks of colour within the glazing that complement the geometric building design and includes a 5,400ft2 student hub offering a reception, lounge, games area, gym, movie room and group study space.
 
Kawneer’s AA®100 curtain walling has been used again, alongside fixed lights, on the mixed-use elements comprising a pair of retail units, 700-space multi-storey car park, and four-star, 208-bed hotel – the first “Innside” hotel in the UK from Melia Hotels International - also in First Street North.

The retail units and lobby to the 11-storey hotel featured reverse slope glazing by Kawneer which gave the design team some great internal atrium space, the glass roof giving a much sharper and cleaner line to the outside of the building. Solar gain was controlled using metal solar shading blades fitted to the curtain wall as well as high performance neutral glazing units.
 
The hotel design allowed for high levels of acoustic insulation and barrier loadings while maintaining the floor to ceiling glass which gives the occupants high levels of natural light and great views of the city. The Kawneer windows were designed and installed to accommodate live load floor slab deflections while still giving the vertical linear design intent.
 
Stretching out over 20 acres of city centre heartland, the 2 million ft2 of First Street Manchester was the first piece of the city designed to connect artistic creativity with business and enterprise in a joint venture partnership between Ask Developments and the city council.
 
The glazing by Kawneer, part of the Arconic group, was installed over a year by specialist sub-contractor Bennett Architectural Aluminium for main contractor Carillion.
 
Director Rob Bennett said: “The co-ordination and logistics of the project presented many challenges due to the complex nature of the site itself, and a high degree of flexibility was required from our site team. Glazing operations frequently had to be carried out at weekends when the number of trades on site was reduced, ensuring a more efficient and safer installation.”
 
He added: “First St North was a scheme where we were involved from the early stages and assisted in the development and delivery from cost plan to handover. This gave us the opportunity to optimise the compliance, aesthetics and cost control.”
 
Ask has now sold First Street to Patrizia UK, a subsidiary of Patrizia Immobilien AG, the German-listed European real estate investment company, while continuing to manage the development of the scheme.
 
ENDS