The new
distillery for luxury whisky brand The Macallan has installed a variety
of Flowcrete
UK floors to create surfaces that would reflect its visual identity
and maintain the functional properties required to produce this iconic Scottish
spirit.
When
Edrington, the international spirits group that owns The
Macallan, decided to build a £140 million facility to meet increasing
global demand, they knew that no ordinary site would suffice. Instead,
Edrington worked with the architectural practise Rogers Stirk Harbour +
Partners to build a one-of-a-kind architectural monument on The Macallan’s
traditional Speyside estate to house both a distillery and visitor
centre.
The
development consists of five cells that seamlessly blend into the surrounding
countryside as undulating, green-roofed earthworks. Four of these would house
the brand’s production operations (three still houses and a mash house) and one
would be the visitor centre
Not only
would the new distillery merge The Macallan’s centuries old traditions with
cutting-edge thinking, but it would do so in a way that allows visitors to see
each step of the process while surrounded in a sustainable and luxurious
environment. This meant creating a facility that would not only meet all the
challenging industrial concerns inherent to making some of the world’s best
whisky, but to do so while constantly conveying an inviting, on-brand
aesthetic.
This was a
particular challenge for the floor area in the four production cells that house
the copper stills, mash tuns, stainless steel washbacks, distillation and
fermentation vessels, pipes and assorted distillery apparatus. The flooring in
these areas will likely face spillages of hot, corrosive by-products alongside
point loading from heavy equipment, frequent foot traffic, intensive cleaning,
impacts and more.
George
McKenzie, Edrington’s UK Engineering Manager, said: “We look on Macallan
as a world luxury brand, and so the whole feeling, the whole aesthetics,
including the floor coverings, had to match that.”
To ensure
that the surface would maintain a functional, visually attractive finish, 5,570
m2 of the polyurethane
system Flowfresh HF LT was applied. This robust, chemical resistant system would be
able to withstand the onsite conditions and provide additional benefits such as
easy cleanability, slip resistance and an in-built antibacterial agent.
A sleek
grey colour was chosen to match the production area’s industrial aesthetic. The
application of the Flowfresh HF LT around the intricate pipework was tricky,
but thanks to the easy applicability of the system, the floor was completed on
schedule and to The Macallan’s exacting standards.
George
added: "During the commissioning of the process area, we’ve had some
spillages of alcohol, malt, malt dust, caustic, which are all pretty hard on
the floor coverings and the floors are still pristine.”
Visitors
to The Macallan’s whisky tour would not just experience Flowcrete UK flooring
in the production areas, as its screeds and decorative finishes were also
applied across many other parts of the site’s visitor centre and distillery
tour.
Before the
resin finishes could be applied, 3,669 m2 of
Isocrete K-Screed and 4,890 m2 of
Flowscreed Industrial Top were used to create robust screed layers that would
provide level and reliable platforms for the decorative coatings. The main
internal tourist routes and viewing gallery were then coated with the fast
curing, methyl methacrylate (MMA) resin floor topping Flowfast
Quartz Structure. This system combines decorative colour stable quartz
granules in a clear resin binder to create a durable floor with an attractive,
textured finish.
A stony,
dark grey shade was chosen to match the natural tones and hues of the site.
This choice was also a great way to use the floor as a backdrop on which the
colours of the timber roof, copper stills, wooden barrels and golden whisky
bottles could pop and stand out. The grey Flowfast Quartz Structure finish was
even applied on the innovative suspended walkway that runs across the top of
the distillery’s large tanks.
Areas that
are usually just functional spaces have been reimagined into visually stunning
works of art in The Macallan’s new facility. This is especially true of the
barrel room (or cave privee), where the sherry cask maturation of the distilled
spirit takes place. This has been turned into a private cellar that displays
each cask like a gallery exhibition, putting the visitor in the centre of a
semi-circle of back-lit barrels.
A total of
303 m2 of the self-smoothing
epoxy system Peran
SL in a glossy black finish was applied to create a sleek floor that
would reflect the cellar’s lights and the outlines of the barrels above in a
dynamic, eye-catching manner. Also, 745 m2 of Isocrete
Isopol SBR was installed in this area to produce a reliable and
durable polymer modified wearing screed for the Peran SL coating to bond
to.
Toby
Jeavons, Project Architect and Associate Partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour +
Partners, said: “This acts as a centre piece exhibit and the ‘holy of
holies’ for visitors and fans on the Macallan pilgrimage.
"The
design required that both the ceiling and floor of this space be black in
colour and highly reflective so providing the illusion of an endless array of
vertical casks. The use of a black coloured Peran SL has again achieved this
aim very successfully.”
The bonded
gravel system Naturewalk was
utilised for the distillery’s external perimeter walkway.
Naturewalk
is a seamless, slip resistant coating designed to reflect the natural beauty of
the outdoors. This combination of properties was ideal, as it would tie into
the venue’s aesthetics and ensure a safe finish able to survive heavy foot
traffic and the inclement Scottish weather.
The new
site will enable The Macallan to increase production by approximately a third
and thanks to its revolutionary design and the use of materials that combine
aesthetics with practicality, it has effectively created a working museum that
will display its traditional craft to visitors in a modern and atmospheric
setting.
