| For
Milton Keynes’ biggest office development in 25 years - The
Pinnacle – architects PHP required an impressive façade to
ensure the building creates a lasting impression. To help
achieve this, they specified a mix of exterior cladding
materials to create an interesting façade. To support this
mix of façade materials, Eurofox Engineering supplied a
number of its innovative rainscreen cladding support
systems. |
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A landmark development by
Hampton Brook Developments, The Pinnacle comprises a 9
storey office building and adjacent 4 storey office building
offering 206,000 square feet of modern office space. With a
concept design by Quartet Architects and detailed design by
PHP Architects, the £36 million scheme was built over a 103
week period by Marriot Construction and Kier Build. |
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To create a façade worthy of the
building’s stature, PHP Architects specified a variety of
cladding materials including a Terracotta tile system,
Aluminium composite Alucobond panels, Western Red Cedar
cladding and powder coated aluminium column casings. To
ensure a reliable and consistent fixing for all of these
different materials, specialist contractor ECL Contracts
turned to Eurofox Engineering. |
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The company provides a range of
versatile and innovative systems for use with most types of
cladding products. With a proven track record, the systems
offer an easy and reliable way to install rainscreen
cladding. |
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For the approximately 2,000 m²
of Terracotta tile system, ECL Contracts used Eurofox
Engineering’s tried and tested aluminium MacFox vertical
cladding bracket and rail system. A versatile, robust, yet
simple to install system, it uses a series of MacFox Helping
Hand brackets allowing for the lining and leveling and final
adjustment prior to installation of the cladding elements. |
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For the Western Red Cedar, the
Eurofox MUH system was adopted. The MUH system is a
combination of a MacFox bracket and Uni carrier enabling the
easy application of timber battens on to which the Western
Red Cedar cladding could be fixed. |
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In both instances the MacFox
rails were quickly and securely fitted to the building
substrate. The Terracotta tiles and the timber battens for
the Western Red Cedar cladding were then simply fitted to
the brackets, providing a simply yet highly effective method
of creating the facade. The company’s innovative thermal
isolators helping to minimise thermal bridging complemented
this. |
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For the 1,000 m² of Alucobond
ACM paneling that was used for the fascias and soffits, ECL
Contracts used Eurofox Engineering’s MTK(Structural
Adhesive) rainscreen cladding support system. The MTK system
allowed the fascias to be secret fixed to the building using
an advanced structural adhesive, SikaTack, from global
building product manufacturer Sika. The soffits were fixed
using MacFox Helping Hand brackets. The MacFox system was
also used to fit half circle powder coated aluminium around
a number of columns. |
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ECL Contracts Manager, Guy
Silverton, commented: “Eurofox Engineering provided us with
an excellent service. We had a number of different cladding
products to install and the Eurofox Engineering system
provided the ideal solution for each one.” |
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For the Pinnacle, using such a
variety of cladding materials, the Eurofox Engineering
system has really demonstrated its versatility, helping to
provide ECL Contracts with a simple yet efficient method of
creating the striking façade. |
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Like all of Eurofox
Engineering’s systems, the system has been designed to offer
contractors an installer friendly ease of application and
specifiers confidence and peace of mind. With both the
MacFox system and the SikaTack Panel Adhesive being BBA
(British Board of Agrément) approved, it enables specifiers
to select a cladding package that has accreditation
throughout. |
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The MacFox system, comprising a
series of standard ‘off the shelf’ components, offers an
easy method of installation and also ensures immediate
availability of products. Once on site, the components are
easy to install as each bracket is punched to enable fixing
to the relevant building substrate. They are also holed and
slotted to allow for dead load and dynamic wind load and the
brackets have been ingeniously designed to allow for
complete alignment and leveling adjustment. |
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The Pinnacle building is the
first office building in Milton Keynes to achieve an
‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating, scoring high in many areas
including supporting Milton Keynes’ sustainability policy.
The design allows The Pinnacle to be served by the Milton
Keynes Combined Heat and Power Network where surplus heat is
used to supply hot water, heating and cooling to the
building. |
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The carbon footprint of the
building has been minimised by taking into consideration
thermally efficient glazing, energy efficient lighting and
air conditioning. |
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Eurofox Engineering cladding
support system has also played its part in helping the
project achieve its environmental goal as the system is
produced from aluminium which is easy to recycle when the
building comes to the end of its life and, being aluminum,
needs only 5% of the energy required for primary production. |
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The Pinnacle is designed as two
buildings joined together by two central cores. They
resemble a single building constructed around a central open
courtyard with an underground car park and 24 hour access
and security. The underground car park provides in excess of
200 car parking spaces and 60 cycle bays and is only 400m
away from the railway station so is accessible for all.
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| For
further information on Eurofox Engineering Ltd see
www.roofinfo.co.uk/Eurofox |
