The two buildings illustrated here were designed by the Sidell Gibson Partnership and represent the first phase of the PaddingtonCentral project for Development Securities. The project comprises two buildings set around a terraced central courtyard.
Office façades are constructed from a unitized (prefabricated and preglazed) SSG curtain-wall system in sizes of 1.5m wide x storey-height. The façade incorporates concealed storey-height smoke vents which are indistinguishable from the fixed glazing panels. Recessed aluminium panels denote the structural grid. The high-performance glazing units (with acoustic enhancement) incorporate Luxguard SN63/32 coatings.
Prominent features of the buildings are the external cores which comprise curved aluminium rainscreen panels with inset glazing. At the terrace levels these panels give way to a curved glazing system with externally mounted curved brise soleil to reduce solar gain to these cores.
At ground floor level the aluminium panels used to denote the grid are replaced by granite cladding panels supplied as an integral part of the curtain wall system; these panels are open-jointed and rear-ventilated in order to reduce the potential for staining.
Schmidlin’s scope of work also included the entrance systems, canopies, roof/terrace level brise soleil and plantroom screens as part of a total envelope solution to the façades.