Alsecco’s external wall insulation system incorporating a glazed ceramic tile finish has recently been installed on an interesting project in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. The scheme had been approved to convert and extend vertically a retail /office development to a retail development with private apartments.
Trinder Architectural Ltd, Chartered Architectural Technologists, specified the alsecco system as they had previous experience of the system and were impressed with its versatility, since the ceramic tiles could be used externally.
The glazed ceramic tiles were an important feature in the original Town Planning approval. The town planners did not wish to compromise the approval in any way as the building is in an area of special character and a particular feature that was important to observe was the fading of the colour vertically through the building. alsecco provided samples of the tiles for the client and architectural technologists matching to specific RAL colour references. The green colours and tones were selected by Trinder Architectural Ltd and an arrangement was developed on CAD to provide a transitional colour gradation that would suggest a tonal change vertically through the building, thus avoiding a banding effect.
Façade specialist, Wall Solutions, installed the alsecco external wall insulation system bedding the ceramic tiles directly to the reinforcing layer. In total approximately 250m2 ceramic tiles were used on the project with a white render finish on the upper floors of the apartments stretching down the side street.
Darren Parker, Wall Solutions commented, “We have worked with alsecco on a number of other projects and have found their technical and design teams always on hand to assist where required throughout the project. This project was quite challenging to re-create the designer’s vision of the graded tonal effect of the tiles through the building, but working closely with alsecco and the architect we were able to achieve the required finish.”
alsecco has worked with Trinder Architectural Ltd, Woodley Lucas Construction Management, the developer and Wall Solutions, the façade installer on another project which assisted in ensuring the clients and architects vison was realised on this scheme too.
Collection alsecco brings together acrylic, clay, stone and ceramic finishes for both exterior and interior use, offering architects and specifiers outstanding design and creative opportunities.
