Cladding
systems aluminium standing seam roof
Building Design Partnership - BDP WINS WITH KALZIP COLOURS AT AINTREE
When architects the Building Design
Partnership were looking for a material to roof and clad
Aintree’s two new grandstands they put their money on a
revolutionary new Kalzip system that certainly proved a winner
at this year’s Grand National.
Fifty-metre lengths of the Kalzip XT aluminium standing seam,
which can be tapered, curved and twisted in 3D shapes, reach
from the bottom of the Earl of Derby and Lord Sefton grandstand
walls to the peak of the overhanging roofs,
curving around the eaves as they near the home straight.
This is punctuated with vertical slots to either side that are
animated by cantilevered balconies which overlook the new parade
ring, allowing race goers to view events both on the starting
and finishing straights and the pre-race parade.
Richard Elsdon of BDP said they specified the stucco embossed
Kalzip XT because: “It offered good value for money and a sound
technical solution based on previous experience. It also
complies with the life cycle maintenance and costing
requirements for the cladding systems. The stucco provides a
suitable, low maintenance finish which will patina naturally
over time.
“Our design also required some specialist, non-standard
applications which we knew Kalzip would be able to develop with
us. It was one of very few cladding materials capable of being
used on the complex geometric forms of the roof and envelope
design.”
Aintree’s grandstands were one of the most technically
challenging projects to date for Kalzip approved Teamkal
contractor Lakesmere who trained their workforce in abseiling
techniques to install the sheets at roof level.
Each individual sheet for the 456m² area was designed using 3D
CAD technology that was also used for the soffits which had to
be twisted at different angles to follow the curves of the
gutters and fascias. To complement the aluminium cladding and
flashings, timber trellises were installed to the rear
grandstand walls to encourage creeping plants to grow and
harmonise the design.
This trellis in turn complements the larch boarding of the
drum-shaped stairs and toilet towers either side of each
grandstand, the middle pair of which guard the central link
block – a bow-fronted glazed bridge that crosses the gateway to
the racetrack and is capped by three circular peaks of white
tensile fabric.
Graham Cleland of Lakesmere said: “We had very limited space to
complete the installation works and there was literally no room
for error as the bespoke XT sheets had been specially designed
for this project. Accuracy therefore was vital.”
Through the development of a new generation of roll formers,
Kalzip have pioneered the manufacture of XT profiled aluminium
sheets. Malleable, pliable, foldable and flexible, the material
is capable of being fabricated to a variety of roof shapes
including ellipses, cones, spherical caps, arches, prisms,
pyramids and all classical geometries.
The theatre of Aintree’s two new grandstands leave the three
existing ones standing but helps to justify the course’s
£35million investment in new facilities which as well as the
grandstands include a two-storey 1,317m² block of saddling
boxes, jockeys changing rooms, a glass-fronted weighing room and
media centre as well as adjacent parade ring.
Design and build contractor Laing O’Rourke began to construct
this element and the grandstand groundworks up to pile-caps
after the 2005 National, in the first of two 43-week phases
split by last year’s race.
The grandstands, totalling 13,936² of steel and concrete frame
with concrete slabs, post-tensioned concrete and pre-cast
viewing terraces, were the second phase, with their groundworks
temporarily covered with tarmac for last year’s season.
Email: tracy@tlcpr.co.uk