Kawneer projects win a hat-trick of RIBA Regional Awards

Kawneer projects win a hat-trick of RIBA Regional Awards

 Three projects featuring glazing systems from leading UK architectural aluminium supplier Kawneer have won RIBA Regional Awards.

They were three of more than 100 awards that made it through the intensive, highly critical process of peer review that is the RIBA Awards.

The £2.54million mixed-use Alconbury Incubator Building won an award in the East, the largest of RIBA’s regions, for executive architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.

Kawneer’s zone-drained AA®100 curtain walling and series 190 heavy-duty commercial entrance doors were installed by specialist sub-contractor Drayton Windows on the first building to be erected in a 20-year project which is transforming a former airfield in Huntingdonshire into 3 million square foot of commercial hi-tec business space, 5,000 homes and a range of transport infrastructure, community facilities and 700 acres of green space.

The RIBA judges thought it “a unique and brilliant solution” with clever use of materials and specification combined with careful consideration of spatial requirements and connectivity with the wider landscape. They viewed the design response as “delightful”, significantly improving the quality of the immediate environment.

The second Kawneer project to win a RIBA Regional Award was the £30million John Roan School in the London Borough of Greenwich by John McAslan + Partners.

Kawneer systems were installed by specialist sub-contractor Leay on both the new-build and refurbishment aspects of this secondary school’s redevelopment.

Kawneer’s 50mm wide AA®100 zone-drained horizontally-capped and mullion-drained structurally glazed curtain walling, AA®543 tilturn windows, and medium-duty swing and series 190 heavy-duty welded doors were used across a split-site campus comprising the Westcombe Park new-build and Maze Hill refurbishment.

The judges felt the windows had simple, elegant vertical proportions.

The third Kawneer project to win a RIBA Regional Award was in the South East, for the £20million BREEAM “Outstanding” WWF-UK headquarters in Woking by Hopkins Architects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kawneer’s AA®100 mullion-drained and AA®100 SSG (Structurally Silicone Glazed) curtain walling with 50mm sightlines and concealed vents, AA®3110 horizontal sliding doors and 190 heavy-duty commercial entrance doors feature on the façade and roof of the Living Planet Centre.

 

The systems were put forward by specialist sub-contractor JPJ Installations for main contractor Willmott Dixon who, to meet the brief from the leading conservation charity, forensically tracked the carbon content of every single element of the 8,900m2, 18-month build.

 

The carbon budget had assumed that the aluminium framing included 30% recycled content but the sub-contractor suggested an alternative supplier that could supply 80% recycled aluminium – and that was Kawneer.