Titanic Visitors Centre, Belfast

Built to a budget of £100m, the iconic and multi-award winning Titanic Museum is the largest man-made tourist attraction in Northern Ireland and was a key part of the £7bn Titanic Quarter regeneration development.

Spanwall's RF50 Rainscreen system was specified for this project and used for 4m panels set on the diagonal in an irregular configuration. This allowed the creation of geometrically complex shapes within the budget.

6,200 m2 of concealed fixed RF50 anodised panels were fabricated - punched or laser cut, routed and folded.

The facade leans out at an angle of up to 18 degrees and 900 of the 2,000 panels were unique.

The three-dimensional rainscreen panels were manufactured from almost 120 tonnes of 3mm J57S aluminium and appear two-tone in colour. In fact all the units were all anodised in natural silver and cover the four-pointed 28m high hulls of this maritime museum. This was a challenging project requiring around 2,000 different panels.

Spanwall also worked on the interior where custom-rusted steel sheets were specified for internal walls and ceilings. The undulating system of steel plates has a patina in keeping with the site's ship-building heritage.

A Multi Award-winning Building

• European Aluminium Awards – Innovation Award and Overall Jury Prize
• RICS Awards – Design and Innovation Award
• British Construction Industry Awards – Major Building Project of the Year (over £50m) – Finalist
• Royal Society of Ulster Architects Awards – Design Award