The award-winning Skelton Lakes motorway services near Leeds is using bespoke manufactured architectural casings from Pendock’s Linea building linings range to conceal structural elements and help achieve a high quality, integrated finish to the retail unit on site.
Designed by Corstorphine & Wright Architects, the services are located at Junction 45 on the M1 within a 40,000-square-metre country park. The environmentally sensitive project employs a series of green roofs and high-level glazing to provide plenty of natural light to the building’s interior, which hosts a selection of cafes and restaurants from major brands, including Starbucks, Burger King, Urban Express and Nando’s.
To meet the project brief, Pendock manufactured and supplied bespoke designed glass reinforced plastic (GRP) bulkhead linings and a series of glass reinforced gypsum (GRG) pilaster linings from its Linea range.
The GRG pilasters were specified to provide a consistent finish between shop fronts, which also allowed the on-site painted finish to integrate with the dry lined walls above. Each pilaster was produced from a bespoke mould and incorporates a stainless-steel kick plate at the base, for extra durability, as well as a 30mm radius on each corner to ensure there are no sharp edges, which is key in high traffic pedestrian areas.
For the bulkhead linings, the concept was to mimic the shape of the steel floor beams, which follow a gentle curve, and GRP was favoured for both aesthetic and practical reasons, as it provided a convenient and clearly defined space for shop signage. Also, manufacturing the bulkheads in moulded GRP allowed the lightweight linings to follow the changing line of the steel floor structure accurately and smoothly.
To ensure all the building lining solutions perfectly match the contours and conditions on site, Pendock undertook a series of detailed site surveys at Skelton Lakes to ensure the exact dimensions were recorded before any manufacturing took place. In addition, all the fixings on the pilasters and bulkheads are concealed to give a smooth finish.
