DOORS, WINDOWS AND GLAZING - A product and project insight

Leading riser door and access panel solution supplier, Profab Access, has proven its first-class credentials once again as part of the recent completion of a major specification at Cardiff’s new 5-star Parkgate hotel. Located next to the Welsh Capital’s famous Principality Stadium, the Parkgate hotel has been designed to provide a luxurious experience for rugby fans, in addition to city dwellers visiting the country all year round.

Widely coined as Cardiff’s most lavish new location, the hotel includes 170 guest bedrooms and suites, a signature restaurant and bar, a traditional tea lounge and a rooftop spa overlooking the city skyline. As part of the prestigious build, a unique collaboration between the Welsh Rugby Union, property developer, Rightacres, and The Celtic Collection, the hotel required an extensive riser door specification, with safety, high performance and aesthetic appeal key considerations.

In total, 310 Profab Access VEGA 1500 Fire Rated Riser Doors were specified for installation by Hazelwood Carpentry throughout every part of the building, including communal areas and the hotel’s vast range of luxury guest rooms and suites. The VEGA 1500 Series Riser Doors offer the highest standards of fire safety, extensively tested by Efectis in France and Ireland to provide a bi-directionally fire tested product that is available in both single and double door configurations.

This means the riser door sets are fire tested from both sides to 60 minutes, providing the specifiers, contractors and hotel guests residing within the building with confidence the critical fire integrity products offer the highest standard and most up to date evidence for fire safety performance. The range also features a slimline, neat construction, whilst its proven technology ensures permanent, safe access to mechanical and electrical services housed within the riser core.

This provides first class functionality and safety, without compromising the overall interior concept. The steel riser doors also streamlined the installation process, as the quick release pivot hinge and light weight enabled easy handling, allowing Hazelwood Carpentry to complete the job quickly and optimise overall project efficiencies.

In the event of a fire, the VEGA 1500 Series Riser Door sets will maintain the frame and integrity for up to 60 minutes, preventing the spread of fire throughout the property for this period of time. The riser doors are 31dB acoustic rated, smoke sealed and airtight to Part L, whilst also featuring intumescent smoke seals that enable occupants to safely exit the building. By specifying bi-directionally fire tested VEGA 1500 Series Riser Doors, the development is actively future proofed as the comprehensive testing certification provides a complete and transparent audit trail of due diligence that evidences the products are not only fit for purpose but meet the duty of care required to ensure legal compliance.

Profab Access’ diverse portfolio of riser doors and access panels are supported by a wide range of BIM Level 2 and CAD files to aid the specification process and streamline the initial design stages. Manufactured at Profab Access’ Atherstone headquarters in accordance with ISO 9001, the 1500 Series Riser Doors can be specified and installed in a range of configurations to meet each project’s specific measurements and requirements. www.profabaccess.com

Described as Dorchester’s most iconic building, the Brewery – once the source of the much-quaffed Eldridge Pope ales – has been transformed into a high-end residential setting with Crittall windows playing a central role in retaining the heritage aesthetic of this historic structure. For nearly a century and a half the building, with its tall chimney, towered above the Dorset town as a symbol of local industry and prosperity.

Designed by architect WR Crickmay the brick building was completed in 1880. At a staggering 13% the brewery’s Thomas Hardy Ale once featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the strongest commercially brewed beer in the country.

The brewery eventually closed in 2003 and the site remained unused until, in 2007, planning permission was granted for a new public square overlooked by the impressive building, restored to its former glory containing 29 one, two and threebedroom apartments.

LMA Architecture of Bournemouth has retained many of the unique features of the original building including riveted steel beams, cast iron columns and exposed brickwork.

Crittall Corporate W20 steel windows and doors were a natural choice, glazed in small panes to replicate the original configuration of the tall brewery windows. www.crittall-windows.co.uk

by Wojciech Brozyna MD of Aluprof UK

Aluprof UK has supported the Building Awards held in London since 2018. The event continues to be the Construction Industry’s premier event and is attended by the main construction companies in the UK to celebrate the best of the UK’s Construction. At the event, the Aluprof team and their guests were delighted to see that three of the prestigious project awards on the evening used Aluprof aluminium systems to complete their facades.

Held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London’s Mayfair on the 1st of November, the event this year was hosted by Jimmy Carr and was attended by more than 1,100 people. Chloe McCulloch, Editorial Director at Building, said: "The judges felt truly uplifted by the quality of the submissions this year, pointing to the resilience of this industry in the face of unprecedented headwinds."

Sponsoring the ‘Building Magazine Project of the Year’, Aluprof UK was delighted to present the award to the Houlton School project in Rugby by the team Urban & Civic, Morgan Sindall Construction and van Heyningen and Haward Architects. The project uses Aluprof’s MB-70 window system which was installed by Dotcom Glazing. The former Rugby Radio Station building was redesigned with further listed buildings on the site to form the new state school delivered by the private sector.

The ‘Refurbishment Project of the Year’ winner was the Bodmin Jail Hotel entered by CField Construction. This project takes a grade two listed derelict and dilapidated 18 th century Cornish Prison which is then converted into a seventy bedroom, boutique four star hotel. Each of the bedrooms has been formed using three former cells and retains many of the building's original features, such as the window bars, stone floors, walls and ceilings, with many further features of the original prison woven into the building fabric.

Aluprof UK supplied their MB Slimline window system used for the cell windows which is a slim sightline aluminium system which looks like a steel window system but incorporates a full thermal break.

The ‘Digital Excellence Award’ winner, entered by Sir Robert McAlpine and Mace, was The Forge in south London’s Southwark. Designed by architects Bryden Wood, introducing a raft of digital technology proposals which enabled Landsec to achieve its innovative ambitions for the scheme. The Forge aspires to be the first commercial building constructed and operated in line with the UKGBC’s net zero definition and energy reduction targets. It comprises two new office buildings and a public courtyard.

Located on Sumner Street, The Forge is a Landsec office development located just behind Tate Modern in London and is one of the most innovative construction sites in London, pioneering several new construction methods fit for the decades ahead. Breaking new ground, the project will be the world’s first large-scale office scheme to be built using a standardised “kit of parts”, in an approach known as ‘platform design for manufacture and assembly’ (P-DfMA), which applies the advances made by the manufacturing industry to construction. The unitised curtain wall used on the project was designed in close collaboration with Bryden Wood, which allowed Aluprof to develop a highly-efficient facade unit. The full-size units have been rigorously tested in Aluprof’s Research and Innovation Centre in Ogrodzona where they passed air leakage, impact, wind resistance, and water penetration tests.

The units were manufactured in Poland and transported in purpose designed, reusable stillages which were lifted to the floor plates using a combination of large material hoists and tower cranes for installation by specialist installers NACWL.

A key feature of the stillage design was to protect the units from any stress and impact during transportation and lift. The new bespoke system has been named as MB-SE120 and has a UW value of <1.3 W(m2K).

Aluprof UK are proud to supply facade systems to a wide range of new and refurbished construction projects across Great Britain and Ireland, with Head Offices in Altrincham in the North West and with an architectural specification support office in the Business Design Centre in London, the company has rapidly grown their specification influence in the UK with their high-performance architectural aluminium systems.

Further expansion of the company’s headquarters in Altrincham now provides specifiers with meeting facilities and an extensive showroom of commercial systems to view. Further information is available on the company website at aluprof.co.uk or direct from their UK head office in Altrincham on 0161 941 4005.

Ken Price, Managing Director of the Automatic Door Suppliers Association, outlines why ‘competency’ should have positive rather than negative connotations.

competence /kmpt()ns/ noun: competency def: the ability to do something successfully or efficiently.

When you think of competency, what are the first things that spring to mind? It is often a word preceded with something negative: “lack of” or “basic” but as the dictionary definition above points out, competency is the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. The need to prove or demonstrate competency is the basis of creating and maintaining standards around which industries are held to account.

In the construction industry, this has never been more relevant than it is today. In September, the Competency

Steering Group (CSG) Working Group 12 - Construction

Products Competence, led by the Construction Products

Association, produced a white paper ‘Built Environment -

Proposed Construction Product Competence Standard’. This proposes that the industry unite behind a single approach to achieve a construction product competence standard.

It highlights that radical change is needed by organisations and individuals who supply or work, have a need for proper assessment and an assurance of competence. The white paper was a response to Dame Judith Hackitt's report ‘Building A Safer Future’ following the Grenfell Tower Fire. This also led to the creation of the Building Safety Act. All industries in the built environment sector use construction products but misuse can lead to dangerous and potentially fatal outcomes.

Ensuring those who use those products are competent is vital if we are to create built environments that are safe, efficient and perform well. This requires implementation across the supply chain; manufacturing, design, sub contractors and those responsible for maintenance. Professional and trade associations continue to work tirelessly to ‘higher the bar’ but applying consistency across the board must now be part of our focus. It is sad fact, that tragedy is often a primary driver for change. A fatality involving a powered pedestrian door led to the formation of the Automatic Door Suppliers Association in 1985.

Its founding desire was to improve skills and competence and 37 years on that remains at the heart of what we do. Dictionary definitions around capability frequently highlight the need for “knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform critical work functions”. However, it is useful to consider the Health and Safety Executive’s take as being, a “combination of training skills, experience and knowledge that a person has and their ability to apply them to perform a task safely.” This meaning hits on a subtle difference – it puts the “person” at the centre of the requirement. The reality is that competence is not just about job knowledge but also a person’s willingness and attitude. Training alone does not achieve competence. Acquired knowledge will decline or be superseded over time, requiring professional skills to be regularly refreshed.

This is why Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is essential – initiating a personal commitment to maintain and update knowledge. Within the automatic door industry, this applies not only to technicians but to all professionals within associated organisations – from major manufacturers to sole traders.

ADSA encourages CPD through a number of initiatives. This includes our soon-to-be launched Pinnacle Programme which will offer role-based NVQ qualifications for advancement or lateral progression across a series of vocational skills at various levels. The ADSA Academy is also a vital resource - an online learning platform, it is available to all employees of member companies.

It hosts more than 100 courses – 30 new ones have been added this year. It includes general and role specific learning along with technical updates. Build UK and the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS card) drives the vetting of competence for site-based construction workers.

Digitisation has made competency more transparent by enabling organisations and their on-site card checkers greater accessibility to records. A total of 2.1 million cards across the industry can now be verified using a mobile phone app - an easy and secure way of ensuring everyone on site has the right qualifications and training for their allocated jobs.

As one of the 38 card scheme delivery partners, ADSA was delighted to play an active role in making this initiative become a reality. As part of the steering group leading up to its launch earlier this year, we worked to apply a technical solution to enable fail-safe checks that would also allow card holders to update personal information. Of course, competency needs to be assessed in order to be ensure its validity.

NVQs have become a critical way to achieve this - especially for those who are established field based workers. From December 2024, it will no longer possible to issue skilled worker competency cards under the old ‘grandfather rights’. This will end and only those with industry based NVQs or apprenticeship qualifications will be regarded as skilled workers.

The role of the Entrance Systems Alliance (ESA) – our training and NVQ delivery partnership with the Door and Hardware Federation (DHF) - is facilitating this change and underpins our aim for education, standards and advancement. Developing future workforces through apprenticeships is a sure fire way to encourage a new generation into specialist or niche sectors of the construction industry, helping curb potential skills shortages.

Apprenticeships are a springboard which equips newcomers with academic and practical learning, that must be evidenced in order to achieve. Within the Powered Pedestrian Door (PPD) industry, ADSA has led the way by creating the PPD Technician Apprenticeship which has seen four cohorts launch their careers through South Staffordshire College, with South Eastern Regional College, in Northern Ireland, soon to welcome another. ny negativity around “competence” must now make way for the positive progression it generates as it paves the way for ever higher standards. www.adsa.org.uk

By spearheading a new apprenticeship, we’re professionalising a route into the business for those wanting to launch a career as a powered pedestrian door technician.

Industry-specific modules with electro-tech learning and functional skills are combined with on-the-job experience over two years.

Find out more: www.adsa.org.uk or 01827 216136