Archives for May 2022

St Paul’s Church in Leeds has been transformed with the addition of a large, bespoke steel door screen and feature steel window.  The screen incorporates a pair of double doors, providing light and airiness.  Both the new steel window and door set are made from Clement EB24 steel sections which include double glazed, argon filled glass units. 

Mark Harlow, the Vicar, said “St Paul’s Church embarked on a major refurbishment of their 60 year old building to make a warm and welcoming, adaptable space while keeping to the original architect’s ideas.  A key part of the brief was to widen the entrance corridor and allow light into one end. This has all been more than achieved using Clement’s metal frame windows and doors. These have helped create an additional space for people to meet and mix. The narrow profile of the frames has allowed maximum light and visual access between the spaces, while the rhythm of the glazing bars both modernise and blend with the architecture of the main worship space.”

Architect Tom Robbins of Pearce Bottomley Architects commented: “We have worked with Clement on a number of projects and have been very pleased with the service we have received and the quality of their products.  They supplied the steel framed glazed screen and feature window at St Paul’s Church, Ireland Wood, Leeds and we couldn’t have been happier with the result.  We also specify Clement’s conservation rooflights whenever we can, as we are of the opinion that they are the best on the market.”

Edgetech spacer technology has yet again played a vital part in realising a striking, inspiring and highly sustainable new building project.

The MOL Campus in Budapest is the work of world-renowned façade expert Agnes Koltay and famed architects Foster and Partners.

Oil and gas suppliers MOL are setting their sights on a net zero future, and preparing for the huge transition that will entail.

As part of that process, they envisioned a cutting-edge new headquarters designed to achieve BREEAM Excellent and LEED Platinum certification.

The resulting landmark is a 29-storey, 86,000 square-metre tower able to house 2,500 workers.

It’s been designed to maximise natural light, rain is collected to water plants and flush toilets, and heating and cooling is provided using renewable energy.

Its elegantly sweeping glass façade seamlessly blends a five-storey section housing restaurants and conference halls with the main tower.

Around 14,000 square metres of insulating glass, and over 500 cylindrically curved panes went into bringing the ambitious design to life.

A mixture of 16mm and 18mm Super Spacer® SG warm-edge spacers were used to provide outstanding stability, flexibility and performance.

Agnes Koltay comments: “The decision to use Super Spacer® was driven by the curved insulating glass façade, which would have been almost impossible to realize with rigid spacers.

“In addition, small tolerance deviations can occur at the edges of the curved glass during the manufacturing process. The structural foam compensates for this with its ability to deform and adapt to the space between the panes.

Super Spacer® is an extensively tried and tested system. “The Opus” by Zaha Hadid and the spectacular Killa-designed “Museum of the Future” in Dubai are just two of the most prestigious free-form facades designed by Koltay Façades and that have benefitted from its exceptional performance.

Edgetech Managing Director Chris Alderson comments: “Free-form, organic facades are one of the most important architectural trends of recent years.

“Without world-class flexible components like the Super Spacer®, they would be extremely complex, slow and expensive to implement.

“We’re delighted that Super Spacer® continues to allow some of the world’s best architects and designers to explore creativity without limits.”

For more information, please call 02476 639931 or visit www.edgetechig.co.uk

Warm-edge spacer specialists Edgetech, a Quanex company, are marking the 15th anniversary of the opening of their first manufacturing facility in the UK.

In 2007, the company invested £2.5m to create the Coventry site that still serves as Edgetech’s main UK headquarters today – which at the time was Britain’s first ever dedicated warm-edge manufacturing facility.

By 2011, Edgetech’s impressive growth had caught the eye of global building products giant Quanex, who acquired the firm, and together the two businesses have gone from strength to strength in the decade since.

“Five years ago, marking our tenth anniversary of manufacturing in the UK, we invited long-standing customers and friends from right around the industry to an event to celebrate,” comments Edgetech Head of Marketing and CX Charlotte Hawkes.

“Honestly, that feels just like yesterday – but in the 5 years since, we’ve come such a long way. We’ve continued to develop even more innovative and efficient spacer solutions, transformed the way we deal with our customers with new initiatives like e-commerce, and taken strides to make the business more community focused, and committed to sustainability, ethical conduct and supporting worthy causes.

“Later this year, we’re hoping to do something to mark this latest key milestone – so keep an eye out for more information in the weeks ahead!”

For more information, please call 02476 639931 or visit www.edgetechig.co.uk

Work is well underway on the latest one million pound plus project for Topglass. The works at the New Children’s Hospital (NCH), Dublin is the most recent in a string of high profile, large scale undertakings for the Toomebridge based glazing specialist firm.

“We are delighted to be involved with the glazing works for the New Children’s Hospital which is being delivered by BAM Building.” Said Topglass Managing Director, Mark Mitchell, “The NCH Project is the most significant single capital investment project in the healthcare system undertaken in Ireland. It will bring together the services currently provided at three Dublin children’s hospitals into a modern, custom-designed, digital state of the art campus. Topglass has been commissioned to install specialist bolted glass for the project during the second half of 2022.”

The glass and glazing contractor has recently completed a number of contracts on a similar scale within the retail, commercial and hospitality sectors. 

“Topglass has always specialised in highly technical installations.” Mark Mitchell continues, “A natural progression to this sees us take on a larger remit encompassing varied internal as well as external glazing packages. Our ability to fabricate aluminium systems combined with our Pilkington Profilit product make us an ideal one-stop shop for glazing solutions. Contracts of this scope, such as the New Children’s Hospital, perfectly align with our growth business strategy. In this way we aim to deliver the most comprehensive service to our clients by fulfilling their specialist glazing needs, from design to installation, focusing on larger scale projects and utilising all of our inhouse capabilities.”

“We look forward to work further progressing on this significant project.”

Topglass is part of the MJM Group of companies and a sister company of MJM Marine, a leading international specialist in cruise ship refurbishment and Mivan, one of Northern Ireland’s best-known fit-out businesses working in the luxury land and marine sectors across the world.