Occupying a waterfront location at Millwall Inner Dock, The Point is a three-storey data centre development by TH Real Estate, one of the world’s largest property investment management firms.
Built to meet the secure data storage requirements of Canary Wharf occupiers, the centre has been designed to complement the quality and aesthetics of other buildings in the vicinity. To achieve this, the exterior has been clad with natural granite from Shackerley’s SureClad® ventilated façade system range. The large format quarried stone façade panels are complemented by eye-catching integral louvres, also in highly polished natural granite, specially fabricated by Shackerley to cover a series of large ventilation grates.
Delivered as a design and build project by North East contractor, Metnor Construction, the £21 million scheme boasts an impressive building envelope specification. All elements of the building fabric were selected to meet a BREEAM Excellent design requirement and the SureClad® natural granite ventilated façade system was precision-fabricated by Shackerley to ensure the cladding addresses the complexities of the building’s design to provide a prestige aesthetic and robust finish.
Explains Mike Dunn from Metnor Construction: “Shackerley worked with our design and procurement team from the earliest stages of the specification to ensure the materials used meet the aesthetic, durability and functionality requirements of the building, resulting in the use of the SureClad® system using natural granite in two colourways.”
Shackerley sourced a product that offers an ideal match with adjacent buildings, cutting, finishing and pre-fabricating the required panels in house at the company’s ISO 9001 certified quality assured manufacturing facility in Lancashire.
The cladding specification called for two highly polished granite colourways; a white granite with silver and dark grey speckling to ‘frame’ the dark-tinted glazing and create the louvres, and a black granite with grey marbling to create feature entrances. In total, Shackerley supplied 3,425 separate granite items that had been custom-fabricated for the scheme.
Mike Dunn continues: “Shackerley was able to accommodate all the demands of the scheme and provided all elements of the façade, including all the necessary primary support structure to site, with the granite panels, all fully pre-fabricated with the SureClad® Hang On system to ensure a secure, robust installation that could handle the weight of the natural stone façade material.”
Amongst the complexities of the project was the need for precision cut outs on the feature entrance canopies. To cut the black marbled granite for these sections, Shackerley used special water-jet cutting and shaping equipment.
Fabrication of the louvres was a unique element of the project, calling upon the expertise of Shackerley’s experienced technical team and advanced cutting, polishing and shaping equipment to produce each section.
Mike Dunn adds: “The louvre detailing is an unusual and complicated element of the building design and getting this right was vital to the finished appearance of the building.
“Shackerley’s technical expertise and production capabilities meant that we were able to procure the complete façade system, including the louvres for the external elevations, from a single supplier, ensuring consistency of materials and finish across the building.”
