PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: THE MILLINERS, BRISTOL
Specified by: HeadOffice3
Project Overview
The Milliners is part of a growing trend to convert under-used office buildings into contemporary residential developments.
A former six-storey office block located on the site of a former hat factory in the heart of Bristol’s commercial city centre, The Milliners has been converted into a development of 109 apartments for London and County Estates by Principal Contractor and office-to-residential specialist, Headoffice3.
The completed project includes a mix of studio, one-bed and two-bed apartments, along with penthouses that boast panoramic views of Bristol. All two-bed apartments have allocated parking and roof terraces, which contributed to the detailing requirements for the SureClad® ventilated façade system.
Design Requirements
The façade for The Milliners needed to offer a high-end aesthetic and remain in keeping with the surrounding commercial and heritage buildings, many of which feature traditional Bath Stone façades. It also needed to offer a lightweight system to address the loading restrictions of the existing building.
The 1970s office block was a robust concrete frame structure with a façade of brown brick. Due to the poor thermal performance of the existing wall build up and the misalignment of the legacy façade, the building was stripped back to the concrete frame, and a completely new wall build-up of structural infill panels was installed between the concrete frame slabs, followed by insulation and the SureClad® Ceramic Granite ventilated façade system.
The cladding requirements included detailing to accommodate both the protruding balconies to the rear of the building, the windows, which are flush to the façade, and large glazed areas on the elevations.
Materials Used
SureClad® Ceramic Granite cladding was specified in a creamy ‘Travertine’ colourway with a natural honed finish, creating a high-end aesthetic that mimics the look and texture of Bath Stone.
A second beige colourway, Volcado, was also used in the same natural honed finish, to provide subtle contrast.
More than 960m2 of cladding was provided for the façade, with panels specified in a combination of 1200 x 600mm and 1200 x 300mm formats to allow the installation team to deliver a visually interesting offset façade design with feature banding.
For one of the elevations, to aid soundproofing, the SureClad® ventilated façade was used in combination with the Kingspan BENCHMARK Karrier Panel system.
