"piano"

Neighbouring the prestigious piano showroom Steinway and Sons, 72 Welbeck Street is a notable and sophisticated development.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop chose BASWA Phon to create a calm acoustic environment in the Shard main reception. The smooth, seamless finish and versatile detailing options allowed the design aesthetic to be maintained.

Shard Place is a 26 story residential development housing 176 apartments from studios to three bedrooms and the third building in Renzo Piano’s Shard Quarter. Situated between St. Thomas Street and London Bridge Street and adjacent to The Shard, Shard Place was previously Fielden House before demolition. Shard Place is one of London’s most central and connected residences, a 28-minute train ride from Gatwick international airport and a short stroll to London’s South Bank. It encompasses five-star amenities, including a rooftop pool, fitness suite, cinema room and private roof garden.Cellecta’s HiDECK Structural 28 was specified by Renzo Piano Building Workshop due to to it being a conductive structural floorboard and having outstanding acoustic and fire performance and low thermal resistance.Mace was awarded this 12,000m² contract for this development in London.

Designed by architect Renzo Piano, the new Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre (SNFCC) in Athens has created homes for the National Library of Greece and Greek National Opera, which include a 1,400-seat auditorium. With significant steel structures involved, Nullifire SC902 Fast Track, On-Site Intumescent Steel Coating was used extensively to provide passive fire protection.

THE PROJECTShard place is the latest phase of the redevelopment at Shard quarter, home to Western Europe’s tallest building – the Shard. Designed by world-renowned master architect Renzo Piano, the new Shard place is the residential development. The 26 story building houses 176 apartments and their mail is serviced via an amazing bespoke arrangement of mailboxes manufactured by SLB.THE PRODUCTFusion Wood mailboxes are arranged in vertical stacks, fixed and suspended within Vertical wood enclosures including solid brass polished blocks, laser-etched and treated with Cotech* finish to extend and protect the surface.*Cotech is an optional extra finish provided by SLB in collaboration with Cotech surface finishes, to enable the cleaning of fingerprints and marks to be simply removed whilst protecting the finish of materials that may mark or scratch with use.

Armourcoat polished plaster provided the finishing touch as part of the renovation of Washington D.C.’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts, designed by cox graae + spack architects and Lance Bailey & Associates. The interior environment centres on a giant oval-shaped structure within the four story atrium – the Duke Ellington Theatre ‘egg’. The outer shell of this 'egg' was expertly hand finished in Armourcoat polished plaster by local installers Senza Fine Inc. In total over 25,000ft2 of finishes were applied to the theatre, cafeteria walls and columns over three levels. The design team took inspiration from piano keys for the interior, featuring crisp white wall finishes with black accents, paying homage to the iconic musician, composer and D.C. native Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ Ellington.Chris Ambridge, Associate Principal at cg+s architects, commented “The choice to use Armourcoat came at the end of an extended process of exploring many options. The decision was important since the theatre is the centre piece at the heart of the school.We found a precedent in London of a similarly complex application and quickly became comfortable that Armourcoat was the right product for our project in terms of cost, schedule and aesthetics. The project team and client have been delighted with the end result. The finish is sophisticated and durable. We hope to have opportunities to use Armourcoat again in the future.” Photography: © Chris Ambridge

FOAMGLAS® Tapered T4+ (Slab)Design Architects: Renzo Piano Building WorkshopExecutive Architects: Adamson Associates, LondonMain Contractor: Mace; Roofing Contractor AC PLCConstruction: 2012Application: Warm Roof - FOAMGLAS® Tapered T4+ (Slab )Finish: Bitumen membranesFOAMGLAS® provided the ultimate solution for the roof maintenance platform of The Shard at level 75.Its light-weight and high compressive strength enable regular maintenance to be carried out without risk of surface damage.At 310 m, Shard Tower is one of Western Europe’s tallest buildings; exposed to extremes of temperature & the revolutionary structure sways up to 50 cm in high winds.The building maintenance platform on level 75 islocated directly above the viewing galleries, and essentially forms the Shard’s roof. To shed water, the flat metal platform required an insulation with a tapered top surface.In this extremely exposed location, and with significantloads upon the platform, a truly reliable solution was needed. FOAMGLAS® insulation combines compressive strength, long-term insulation performance.Using their "in house" CAD systems, FOAMGLAS® designed a bespoke Tapered Insulation system. Taking full advantage of its low coefficient of expansion, and to eliminate thermal bridging, FOAMGLAS® and its membranes were adhesive bonded onto the metal structure. The unique ability of FOAMGLAS® to withstand high compressive loads ensures regular maintenance work can be safely carried out without damage to the insulation or the membranes.Adamson Architects commented on this project: "FOAMGLAS® has proved itself to be the ultimate solution for the difficult loadbearing areas of the Shard. Specifying cellular glass insulation ensured complete integrity and performance in key areas of the Shard Tower".

Forbo Flooring Systems’ Marmoleum was the product of choice for a creative breakout space at investment management firm, Triple Point. With its growing headcount, Triple Point appointed AW Spaces to create an environment that could accommodate the company’s hybrid working strategy, whilst developing a light and warm aesthetic.  Founded in 2004, Triple Point employ 215 people and manage over £2.7 billion of private, institutional and public capital across five distinct investment strategies: Social Housing, Energy, Digital Infrastructure, Private Credit, and Venture. Each of these strategies helps to solve a problem society faces, and each one creates opportunities for investors.  With the company’s increased headcount and the new hybrid working strategy, AW Spaces suggested increasing the size of the breakout area available to employees. The aim was to make this area feel different from the working environment, by incorporating warmer colours with a dynamic flooring design.   Another important aspect for this project was the environmental impact. Lisa McLeod, Design Director at AW Spaces spoke on this, saying: “Sustainability was a big part of Triple Point’s brief. As such, when it came to choosing a floor covering for the space, the sustainability aspect led us to look at products such as Forbo’s Marmoleum. After discussing the sustainable flooring with Triple Point, where I also sent them a concept image of a design, we decided it was the perfect solution.  “Not only did Marmoleum fit the sustainability requirements, but it’s also available in a variety of contemporary designs that match in tone with each other, which allowed us to create a very dynamic space. Additionally, it’s a really nice material to work with, which aided the installation process.”   Forbo’s Marmoleum was specified in Terracotta, Titanium and Vintage Blue from the Marmoleum Walton range, and in Neptune Blue from Marmoleum Piano. Lisa commented on these choices, saying: “We chose these colours as they work beautifully together and coordinated with the joinery so it looked as though those elements rise from the ground. We also really liked the warmth of the Terracotta colourway and the brightness of Neptune Blue, which provided some contrast from eachother without looking disjointed from the joinery they connected to. The choice of colours really helped us to convey the feeling that this space was for relaxation rather than work, with all the colours flowing into one-another nicely.”  This refurbishment wasn’t like a typical installation as there were multiple different colourways which had to be combined in different shapes. As opposed to a typical refurbishment where tiles or sheet flooring is laid; this flooring had to be cut into shape in situ. The finished flooring mixes curved edges with sharp points, with all four colourways meeting towards the middle of the floor then flowing out at different angles around the room.  Lisa continued “The pattern was quite complex, so Forbo recommended an installer called Medifloor to us who could take on this challenge. We had worked with them on a couple of occasions before, so we knew they had the credentials, and they did a fantastic job with pinpoint accuracy!  “We’re absolutely delighted with the finished result and I’d say the breakout space remains my favourite part of the entire project.”  With a unique installation, a specialist approach had to be taken by installers, Medifloor. Jim Gordon, the Director of Medifloor, spoke on this, saying: “AW Spaces gave us this amazing design for Triple Point, which was extremely challenging to create with all the different curvatures. So, to achieve it we actually used computer aided templates which allowed us to cut the perfect curve – something that’s really hard to acheive in flooring.   “Forbo’s Marmoleum Walton was perfect for this, as it’s the only sheet flooring that lends itself to the natural materials used in this project and looks amazing when finished.”  With this method, a creative and dynamic flooring solution was created. With the installation starting in July 2022, Triple Point’s office refurbishment was finished in mid-September 2022 and has been well received by the staff who use it.  Luke Francois, Guest and Employee Experience Manager at Triple Point, concluded: “We asked AW Spaces to create a bright and inviting space, with a focus on using sustainable products and services, and Forbo’s Marmoleum ticked all the boxes for this. We’re happy with the end product delivered by AW, Medifloor and Forbo.” For more information about Forbo’s range of office products, visit: www.forbo-flooring.co.uk/offices  

When CMS Danskin Acoustics Limited was engaged by Progressive Group to ensure the Shangri-La Hotel’s 42 floors in the Shard were effectively soundproofed, it wasn’t a straightforward assignment. From the very first sketches drawn on a napkin by Piano during dinner with entrepreneur and property developer Irvine Sellar, the Shard was always intended to be ‘all about the windows’, with expressive façades of angled glass reflecting sunlight and the sky, and affording 360° views of the city.Unfortunately, when the glazing is central to the design, floors can get in the way of the overall effect, and the temptation is to minimise floor heights (within Building Regulation parameters, of course). This presents a significant challenge to acoustic insulation installers. In short, the thinner the floor, the harder the soundproofing material has to work acoustically and the more physical punishment it has to endure.For approximately 70% of the floors, Progressive applied a Gyvlon liquid screed at a 40mm minimum thickness. The screed was pumped from ground level, with the largest pour in excess of 80m3 covering an area of 1,680m2. In approximately 30% of the floor areas, however, the floor screeding level could not be raised because of the existing floor-level transom in the curtain walling. This meant that there were instances of screed thicknesses of approximately 25mm in places.CMS Danskin’s Regupol E48 (REGUPOL sonus curve 8) was specified, a Robust Detail approved (E-FC-6) high-performance screed isolation material. E48 (REGUPOL sonus curve 8) was perfect for those ‘thin screed’ areas, with its maximum load bearing capacity of 3000kg/m3 (30kN/m2), combined with a mean average impact sound insulation performance of 46dB and a mean average airborne sound insulation performance of 49dB, both values well in excess of the requirements of Part E of the Building Regulations.Building Regulations aside, E48’s (REGUPOL sonus curve 8) ‘over-performance’ is crucial for a hotel as exclusive as the Shangri-La. The award-winning, globe-spanning hotel group prides itself on providing a customer-focused experience, with the emphasis very much on luxury. Intrusive noise from above or below a guest’s accommodation would almost certainly undermine those efforts. Plus, with this being a flagship project for the Shangri-La – their first hotel in Europe – ‘fit for purpose’ simply wasn’t an option.As a Robust Detail underscreed, E48 (REGUPOL sonus curve 8) has already been rigorously pre-tested to ensure it achieves a minimum performance of 5dB over and above Part E, thus eliminating the need for Pre-Completion Testing. However, CMS Danskin and Progressive, having worked together successfully on the exclusive One Hyde Park development, preferred to adopt a partnership approach, with the emphasis on planning and testing, giving absolute certainty to all parties and making full use of all the skills, expertise and experience at their disposal. To this end, Paul Absolon, CMS Danskin’s Technical Director, worked closely with Progressive’s technicians, carrying out off-site simulations and fitting trials with varying screed thicknesses. Only once both parties were satisfied with every aspect of E48’s (REGUPOL sonus curve 8) acoustic performance in a ‘real world’ situation did the installation proceed.More than 16,000m2 of E48 (REGUPOL sonus curve 8) were installed over approximately 3 months, with Progressive and CMS Danskin maintaining their close working relationship throughout.Tony Cooney, Estimating Manager at Progressive Group, said, “The completion of the screed and insulation work on the Shangri La Hotel development was a fantastic achievement and it presented a number of very challenging situations – both technical and logistical. Solutions to these challenging situations are achieved by the co-operation of all parties involved – including material suppliers. The technical assistance provided by CMS Danskin on this Shangri-La project and other prestigious contracts in the London region in recent years has been exceptional and we look forward to continuing our excellent relationship.”Said Paul Absolon, “It was a privilege working on a project as ground-breaking and culturally significant as The Shard, and it was a pleasure working with the professionals at Progressive Group again. At CMS Danskin, we like to be put to the test. The Shard certainly was a challenge and we’re proud to have met that challenge and delivered.”