PROJECT FOCUS - CHIPS 47
This was anything but a repetitive job. The buildings are not rectilinear, and the balcony openings and glazing are deliberately irregular, to create a variety of apartments and an animated façade. This means that there are an enormous number of different panels, even before you consider the application of the lettering. ‘Every panel had a postcode,’ Norman said. The contractor had to erect the panels from the postcode.
The idea for the lettering came from the rather fairground nature of decoration associated with canal boats. Having considered various ways of applying the lettering, Alsop Architects settled on silkscreen printing, sending the panels off from Trespa to a specialist printer. The only issue is durability, but Norman does not consider it a problem. The panels have a design life of 20 years, and there is no way, he says, that the printing will remain pristine through that period. But, he argues, ‘The degeneration is like newsprint. It’s part of the way the building will age over time.’
The cladding is a rainscreen, with the weatherproofing provided by a build-up behind, a relatively conventional solution of Metsec framing, with a cementitious exterior board, and insulation and drylining behind it.
The screen printed lettering will fade like old newsprint
With such a long thin building, there was a possibility of having seemingly endless corridors, but the architect has done everything it can to avoid this. There is a triple-height entrance to the ground floor of the building which is raised to set it above the ground plane, providing some privacy for the studios on the ground floor, as well as ensuring that the ‘underground’ car park is naturally ventilated. The entrance, halfway down the long side, is a generous space with glazed bridges crossing it at first and second- floor level. Sickle-shaped cut-outs in sprayed MDF lining material have LEDs behind them, which cycle through different colour palettes to give a lively and changing impression.
Placing the core in the centre immediately halves corridor length, and there is full-height glazing at the ends to bring in light. Another advantage is the generous floor to ceiling height of 2.65m. The soffits, of acoustic- absorbent material with long fluorescent tubes behind them reflecting light down, are in a zigzag pattern. This jazziness extends to the staircases, which Norman describes as having a ‘nightclubby feel’, despite using basic materials on a tight budget. So the stairs themselves are of black-painted metal with precast concrete flights and mild steel handrails. But there are acid yellow stair nosings, and bright pink fluorescent battens are placed in the corners of the exposed concrete enclosure.
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