FRANCIS CRICK INSTITUTE, LONDON
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© Francis Crick Institute
in mortared terracotta, paying regard to its grand neighbours in the form of St Pancras Station, the British Library, and the wider local vernacular.
Staying on top The building’s distinctive vaulted roof recalls the form of the adjacent Barlow Shed at St Pancras International, and is constructed in a bespoke combination of aluminium, steel and glass elements. “This roof form is intended to help visually shield and unify the large amount of plant space in a form that both minimises the building’s visual impact on the sensitive surrounding streets, while allowing it equal standing to the adjacent library and station,” says Malcic. He explains that the roof form was derived from a parametric BIM model, “allowing for a great number of iterations to be tested and analysed quickly for form-finding, street view assessment and plant volume clash detection.” The resulting roof surfaces are a combination of flat, single-curved or double-curved elements. The latter elements form a partial torus – the key driver for the exterior face of the steel structure, which is covered with 2400 aluminium and glass fins.
ADF MAY 2018
“The precise location, size and geometry of each louvre blade, blade brackets and spine tubes are also derived from the model, and form the basis of the information issued for tender,” says Malcic. Utilising painted steel, the underlying structure of the roof is hooped north-south, and gently curved in an east-west direction. The grid is braced back to the main building frame for stability, and is capable of large cantilever overhangs at the east and west ends and on the north side of the higher roof.
Malcic summarises the screening structure: “The visible surface of the roof is an extensive kit of different louvre blades which are attached via transverse brackets to an extruded aluminium tubular spine spanning between the main roof hoops. “These include solid and perforated aluminium and laminated glass blades, all of different widths, and photovoltaic blades, all angled at 15 degrees to the tangent of the hoop to which they are fixed.”
Levolux worked collaboratively with the project design team to develop and install a custom roof screening solution, including for the PV blades. The enormous resulting structure is 160 metres x 80 metres wide
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The vaulted roof is constructed in a bespoke combination of aluminium, steel and glass elements
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