Stanstead Airport Canopy
MAG announced in June 2013 (as part of a visit to the airport by the Secretary of State for Transport) that it would be launching an £80 million terminal redevelopment programme (including a new canopy).
As part of this redevelopment, Galliford Try has awarded Fabric Architecture the contract to design, engineer and install a series of tensile canopies for the airport’s Meet & Greet Valet Parking service. The structures will cover over 600sqm of car parking space, providing welcoming and practical shelter for customers dropping off their vehicles at the premium parking area.
The design brief stipulated that the canopies should compliment the terminal building and the existing ETFE structure. The terminal building was designed by Foster Associates and features a “floating” roof, supported by a space frame of inverted-pyramid roof trusses, creating the impression of a stylised swan in flight.
The Fabric Architecture design comprises a low-impact barrel canopy of crisp white PVC fabric, on an uncomplicated steel framework, which is both galvanised and powder-coated to meet to the stringent 25+ year life-expectancy specification.
The project is due to complete in early summer 2015.
Lighting up Scottish Power Headquarters
The site, previously the home to the former Strathclyde Regional Council, overlooks the M8 motorway and Kingston Bridge and will replace Scottish Power’s current office locations in Falkirk, and Cathcart & Yoker in Glasgow.
Fabric Architecture was approached by a team of Glasgow-based architects appointed by Scottish Power who were struggling to find an adaptable solution for a series of ceiling voids on the ground level of the new 14-storey HQ building.
Other products on the market were either no longer being produced or were very limited in their flexibility. Fabric Architecture’s solution is adaptable to the project-specific needs and is offered at a fraction of the cost. Previous projects, such as Dublin T2 and Heathrow T2B provided the architects with an extra level of confidence to develop the project with the Fab Arch team.
13 large ceiling panels will now form part of the ground floor ceiling system, sitting flush within the plasterboard soffits and lighting up the hallways leading to several banks of lifts and stairwells.
Over several months, Fabric Architecture’s in-house design and engineering team has developed the system with the Architects and Main Contractor Laing O’Rourke, casting proprietary dies and building test rigs with a series of translucent fabrics, in order to achieve the desired lux levels.
The end result will be a slick, lightweight and demountable illuminated ceiling system, delivered on time and well inside the original budget anticipated by the client.
“Better to illuminate than merely to shine” Thomas Aquinas