A new façade of curtain walling from Kawneer has helped a refurbished office block realize a 29% improvement in carbon reduction over an equivalent building.The GBP 3 million refurbishment has transformed the 1970s four-storey brick and glass building both aesthetically and in terms of its performance. In fact, the refurbishment will now provide sustainable flexible office space in the heart of Norwich for up to 10 businesses.
A new façade of curtain walling from Kawneer has helped a refurbished office block realize a 29% improvement in carbon reduction over an equivalent building.
Kawneer’s AA100 structurally silicone glazed curtain (SSG) and capped walling, plus AA601 fixed light casement windows and series 190 heavy-duty commercial entrance doors, have been installed at Yare House, Norwich, UK.
The GBP 3 million refurbishment has transformed the 1970s four-storey brick and glass building both aesthetically and in terms of its performance. In fact, the refurbishment will now provide sustainable flexible office space in the heart of Norwich for up to 10 businesses.
The front, south-facing façade formerly experienced excessive levels of solar gain which was inefficiently controlled by internal manual blinds. This has been replaced with Kawneer’s AA100SSG curtain walling incorporating solar double-glazing.
The Kawneer curtain walling extends up to incorporate an additional 475 sq.m. storey that provides an oversailing roofline sun buffer under which a series of louvres are hung from curved vertical columns, offset from the building line.
Such measures have helped this 3,040 sq.m. Grade A office building achieve an Energy Performance Certificate ‘B’ rating and also a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’.
Project architects Ingleton Wood carried out a carbon emission comparison over a building with equivalent standard gas boilers and cooling system which showed a 28.69% improvement. The high performance façade contributes to this with reduced pressure on the M&E system to perform.
The new south façade of silicone jointed Kawneer AA100 curtain wall, capped AA100 curtain walling to the new floor west façade, AA601 windows to the new floor north façade, series 190 manual and automatic doors and a simple glazed canopy over the main entrance, were installed over 10 months by approved specialist sub-contractor Drayton Windows.
Ingleton Wood associate architect James Evans said: “It was important to select materials on the merits of life cycle and recyclability as opposed to solely on cost grounds and the selection of aluminium has positively contributed to the BREEAM achievement. Aluminium is a highly sustainable product that can be recycled over and over again. The re-melting of aluminium requires little energy – only 5% of that used for primary aluminium production – and 85% of aluminium used in the UK construction industry is recycled.”