Schüco façade systems enable contemporary living within a heritage building
The conversion of Lots Road Power Station, London, into a 21st Century luxury apartment block demonstrates how, with imagination and a flexible façade system, historic structures can be preserved and adapted to serve contemporary uses.
Architect: Farrells
Façade contractor: JRL Facades, McMullen Facades
Main Contractor: Midgard
Photo credits: Hutchison Property Group
Products: FWS 60; AWS 70 SI; ASE 80 SI; ASS 77 PD.HI; Schüco Jansen Fire Rated Doors
Lots Road Power Station opened in 1905 to generate electricity to power London's underground railway. Decommissioned in 2002, this monumental building is now the centrepiece of the Chelsea Waterfront development on the north bank of the Thames for Hutchinson Property Group.
Renamed Powerhouse, the building's metamorphosis from 120-year-old industrial behemoth to 21st Century luxury apartment block has been sensitively undertaken under licence from English Heritage by architect Farrells.
Gone are the giant coal-fired boilers, turbines and generators and in their place are 260 high-end apartments lined along a large daylit central atrium. The apartments are supported on a self-supporting concrete structure built within the existing rich red brick and terracotta envelope. This new structure is visible externally in the concrete balconies of the new apartments.
Key to the building's transformation are the Schüco window, door and curtain wall systems, which seamlessly marry the restored 130m long façades with the new apartments hidden behind.
Farrells specified Schüco for this challenging project because its diverse range of thermally efficient façade solutions were suitable for all the major project elements. "Schüco was the stand-out system house for this project due to the dynamic nature and wide range of systems which ensured all the onerous technical, aesthetic and performance requirements of the project could be achieved," says Lee Armstrong, Reconstruction Director of specialist contractor JRL Facades.
Façade Restoration
In addition to fabricating and installing the Schüco systems, JRL Facades was also responsible for the complete restoration of the brick and terracotta elements of the façade and removal and replacement of all external glazing. "We spent thousands of hours carefully removing the old glazing and replacing and making good the brickwork around each opening," explains Armstrong. Each opening was then measured precisely to ensure the new windows and curtain walling system were fabricated to fit perfectly.
Set back from the original elegant arched window openings is a new Schüco FWS 60 curtain wall system incorporating fixed lights and sliding doors. This was selected to maximise daylight in the apartments, enable access to balconies and to provide ventilation. The system was sufficiently adaptable to accommodate minor variations in the slab-to-slab tolerances of the concrete balconies.
The aesthetic requirement for offset vertical mullions on the multiple level glazing was complex. This required the mullions to be terminated at every floor junction, which made design and installation more challenging.
Irregular curved profiles
A particular challenge was fabrication of the curtain wall profiles to fit within the arched rebates; due in part to minor irregularities in the construction of the hand-laid brick openings, which had been compounded by the building settling over time. "Getting the curvature right for the aluminium frame section is challenging, ideally you'd have a single point from which the curve's radius begins but, because the window rebates are irregular you need three different points of curvature," comments Armstrong.
The list of Schüco products used externally includes: FWS 60 curtain walling for the majority of the Power Station's external glazing; AWS 70 SI for the high level circular windows; ASE 80 SI sliding doors opening from apartments to external terraces; ASS 77 PD.HI sliding doors to the penthouse terraces; and Fire Rated doors on the ground floor.
Beneath the glazed atrium roof, atrium walls incorporate glazed Schüco curtain wall, window, and door solutions to maximise light to the internal communal walkways and to provide ventilation.
Internally, FWS 60 curtain walling with window and door inserts form the atrium screens with Schüco Jansen fire rated doors fitted within the apartments.
With many of its apartments now occupied, the Powerhouse is a testament to this historical landmark with its Schüco façade and window systems enabling contemporary living within a heritage building.
