Steel Award

Borough Yards is a mixed-use development in London comprising a refurbished Victorian warehouse, redeveloped railway arches, and two new-build offices. Designed by SPPARC Architects, the scheme includes, restaurants, shops, leisure facilities, and BREEAM Excellent-rated office space. The façade design emulates the historic building’s original fenestration, highlighting distinctive features, while incorporating modern, high-performance, thermally broken steel windows and doors with high-security glazing fabricated by Propak Architectural Glazing.

One of the main challenges for the design team was ensuring that the new glazing systems visually matched the original heritage windows. A range of Schüco Jansen steel systems, including Jansen Janisol Arte 2.0 windows and Jansen Janisol doors, were chosen for their sleek sightlines, ability to blend seamlessly with the existing architecture, thermal performance, and structural strength. The latter ensured that the window units were able to accommodate large floor-toceiling glazing, which was a prerequisite for the offices.

 
High-security doors were required to meet the DOCO requirements, leading the architect to specify thermally broken 10-part Jansen Janisol folding doors. The entrance doors comprise Jansen Janisol units, which visually match the folding units.

The thermally-efficient Schüco Jansen steel window and door systems contribute significantly towards the office spaces achieving BREEAM Excellent. They also form part of the scheme’s cradle-to-cradle construction philosophy.

The project’s ability to unite new and existing elements into a visually-pleasing and coherent whole impressed the judges, as did the crisp detailing and skilful execution of the entire façade package.