floor glazed sliding doors and oversized windows
accentuate the views. Glazed balustrades provide
an unobstructed connection between inside and
outside. The façade plays with colour and relief in
the vertical bands which dissect the horizontal axis.
The 3.5° inclined 7-storey unitised double glazed
curtain wall to the hotel was custom designed to
not only allow for accessible internally illuminated
spandrel panels, but also to accommodate
varying glass curvatures and floor plate depths,
while still meeting the structural and fire life
safety requirements.
Construction Highlights
Framing the external envelope of the building,
as well as creating visual separation between
vertical zones, extensive use is made of off-shutter
concrete using the highest possible tolerance –
‘Special Off-Form’ to create an extremely smooth
surface finish which required no additional sealant.
Shuttering to both vertical and horizontal planes
was very carefully considered and designed
in conjunction with the formwork fabricator to
achieve concrete seams as flush as possible,
circular ferrule holes with clean edges, and visually
appealing shutter patterns.
The two 12.3m high off-shutter columns in the
pre-function space were cast continuously using
three individually designed oiled steel shutters,
while the inclined ellipsoid columns around the
hotel bar had custom made shutters to cast
these 6.7m columns as a single entity, and then
This Spread:
Hotel Images
One on Whiteley 39