Designed by leading architects Denton Corker Marshall and featuring complex chisel edge Sotech Optima TFC rainscreen, perforated panels and a feature bullnose, Glow is a striking events venue providing Bluewater, Europe’s largest retail destination, with a year round consumer focused leisure experience.
Glow, a signature project for Sotech, incorporates Optima TFC rainscreen panels in yellow polyester powder coat around the main entrance and as an internal design feature where the external wall of the venue opens into the existing Bluewater shopping centre.
Further enhancing the entrance to the venue, utilising sophisticated programming software and CNC machinery, Sotech manufactured face fixed perforated panels in 3mm silver powder coated aluminium, providing a 40% free area. However by far the most challenging feature of the cladding requirement was the complex geometry of the 3.5 metre wide bespoke feature panels forming the curved and sloping bullnose, together with radiused and curved tapering soffits.
To identify and address potential problems prior to material manufacture and installation and to demonstrate the integration of the fascia, soffits and bullnose, Sotech, working closely with façade specialists Lakesmere, developed detailed CAD designs to produce a scaled mock-up at Sotech’s factory in Peterlee.
By manufacturing the 3.5m wide feature bullnose panels in 4mm architectural grade aluminium composite rather than a lighter weight of material, the need for stiffeners to support the sloping and overhanging bullnose was removed and the potential for material sag, eradicated. And by removing the stiffeners, Sotech also eradicated the associated problem of ‘quilting’, an unsightly effect created by condensation due to seasonal weather variations, which highlights the position of the stiffeners behind the face material.
The sloping roof which features three different Kalzip profiles and a green roof, integrates with a complex curved and tapering soffit manufactured by Sotech in Reynobond aluminium composite material. Utilising sophisticated 3D modelling software, Sotech was able to create a chisel edge integrating the soffits seamlessly with the silver ACM feature curved bullnoses, rolled to the Lakesmere grid system with the shadowgaps running horizontally as a design feature.
In addition to offering a full range of rainscreen systems including the TFC through-fix incorporated into the Glow project, secret-fix, hook pin and plank rainscreen options, Sotech is also able to provide a high quality bespoke manufacturing service for all architectural fabrications.
Sotech has invested heavily in sophisticated design and manufacturing technology and remains the only rainscreen manufacturer to offer a system that is both independently tested to CWCT standards and achieves LPCB Red Book accreditation.
The training facility and showroom are open to specifiers and contractors where all Sotech’s rainscreen systems are on display alongside the widest selection of materials and finishes including pre and post coat aluminium, ACM, copper, zinc, stainless steel, digital print and anodised.