Nothing beats going to see buildings in construction. As part of our works on 1 New Street Square, London, we carried out a team visit to 70 Mark Lane by Bennetts Associates.
We were accompanied by the Felix designers to review the ongoing installation of their system. The project shares technical similarities to 1 New Street Square and fueled our design discussions on the adaption of their system to suit. We reviewed the performance and installation challenges as well as details such as recessed spandrels and level thresholds.
The demands that the thin recessed precast panels (by Decomo) posed on 70 Mark Lane were discussed. These cut into the system face, in a similar but more extreme way to the spandrels on 1 New Street Square, and have required additional stiffening of the units as well as increased stiffness to the mullion profiles. The stringent thermal performances that we have on 1 New Street Square makes this detail particularly challenging for us.
In just a few hours on site, seeing the system installation, it is possible to get a much greater understanding of the details involved and this allows the detailed design development to be progressed with greater certainty and clarity than before. A really worthwhile visit for all concerned.