NIA had commissioned Ryder Architects to re-design the Duty Free Retail Area on Level 2 of the airport. Their design incorporated large sweeping curves on plan which also incorporated the shopfronts. The demise line of the shopfronts also entailed that they needed the facility to be closed off outside trading hours from a security point of view in addition to each unit being an individual fire compartment. This created a problem in terms of product choice to fulfil these criteria since in most cases such retail units would be closed by means of vertical fire shutters but these cannot describe curves on plan furthermore the entrances were considerably wider than the maximum for vertical shutters.
Bolton Gate were invited to be involved and at a series of meetings, assisted both the Architect and the Contractor, Sir Robert McAlpine to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution by means of our Contour Shutter which comprises galvanised steel laths and which has been successfully fire tested for four hours. The Contour shutter operates laterally and coils into a box at one side and this innovative product can describe an infinite number of bends and curves whilst closing off openings up to 100 metres wide.
Bolton Gate successfully manufactured, delivered and installed six shutters ranging in width from 10 to 23 metres. Since the shops continued to trade during the installation period, we worked a mixture of normal and out-of-hours shifts to give the client the maximum flexibility. All shutters were handed over on time.
