Farringdon Road, London

An Award-winning Facade Project

This project won the Best Use of Rainscreen Award at the Facade Awards in recognition of the outstanding design and delivery.

Architects Sheppard Robson’s design for the external façade for this mixed use development included differentiating between the hotel and office sections by changing the building façade across its length. This resulted in the requirment for two separate solutions.

The building features a striking sawtooth façade which uses KME TECU® Bronze and VMZINC Quartz-Zinc sheets formed into bespoke rainscreen panels from Spanwall.

KME TECU® Bronze sheeting has a distinctive copper look and was used to clad the hotel element, with contrasting zinc cladding for the office development. 

Design Criteria

This was an extremely challenging design intent. Spanwall collaborated closely with Alufix Façades, the specialist sub-contractor, to create two innovative rainscreen solutions that could be manufactured and installed in the most efficient way possible.

A bespoke hybrid rainscreen cladding system was manufactured by Spanwall, firstly fabricating rhomboid shingle panels into chevrons and then an aluminium rainscreen carrier panel.

The chevron shingles were individually mechanically fixed to the carrier panel to produce a unitised facade solution.

The copper and zinc finishes were chosen for their strong aesthetic appeal and durable and long-lasting properties.

The TECU® Bronze finish is rarely used in a project of this scale and the warm, reddish hues will continue to age and weather, creating a unique finish for this significant building.

Project Challenges 

The Farringdon Road project was developed on a constrained brownfield site in central London with restricted access. The size and fragility of the panels was a logistical challenges for the installation phase.

Handling the unitised sub-assembled rainscreen units around the scaffolding, and installing it onto the finished façade, required stringent logistical planning and co-ordination between Alufix and Spanwall.

The sizing of each unit was bespoke, and much larger than standard rainscreen units. Each unitised panel was manufactured in floor-to-floor heights up to 5m high and 2m wide.

Spanwall manufactured and pre-assembled more than 10,000 parts into 150 zinc panels and 370 TECU® Bronze panels to reduce work on site.

Throughout the process, tight manufacturing tolerances had to be adhered to.

The rainscreen assemblies were extremely fragile and had to be packed and delivered to site avoding damage through the use of bespoke stillages for transport from the factory.

The project also had an extremely demanding construction programme. Close collaboration between Alufix and Spanwall ensured the project was manufactured within the required timescale of just three months.

Manufacturing excellence 

The rainscreen façade assemblies manufactured by Spanwall, were back ventilated with a system that enables the outer layer to breathe whilst the inner layer delivered the thermal insulation.

The panels were manufactured in a quality controlled environment at Spanwall’s state-of-the-art factory in Belfast.

Using advanced digital technology, its design team created a ground-breaking rainscreen solution that enabled the TECU® Bronze and small zinc shingle panels to be pre-assembled into larger rainscreen panel sub-assemblies, significantly reducing installation time to meet the programme requirements.

Maximising work offsite in Spanwall's factory also minimised any impact of inclement weather during the installation phase.

Customer Feedback

Karol Doherty, Technical Director, Alufix Façades:

“The shape, scale and intricacy of the cladding types used on this project made this a complicated contract to delivery, which required a high-quality system to satisfy the exacting standards of the client and the architect.

Having collaborated with the Spanwall team on other projects, and knowing their ability to deliver more complex and bespoke facade solutions on time and on budget, we had no reservations in bringing them on board as one of our key suppliers on the project. 

There was a real collaborative and solution-focused effort to overcoming the challenges and complexities on this scheme and it was a pleasure working with Spanwall at each stage.”

Image credit - VMZINC