Complex element façade for Gramercy Tower in Cardiff

With louvers and serviceable aesthetic aluminum fins

With breathtaking views of the city center and Cardiff Bay, the 27-story Gramercy Tower is the city's tallest building. Based on just a 3D sketch and cross-section, TGM façades UK Ltd. provided the complete façade infill. The Hueck Trigon Unit-L façade system was the basis of the complex element façade with louvers and aesthetic aluminum fins that are load-bearing even for façade maintenance.

On behalf of Intelle Construction Limited, we were approached at an early stage to help design the facade of the striking Gramercy Tower, says Jeroen Bourgonje of TGM. "We have the knowledge and expertise to build a facade from scratch, and that expertise was needed here. Based on some summary data and a design sketch from the architect, we designed the complete element façade, including all the details. A facade that is completely technically correct, has been extensively tested beforehand and has been prepared completely ready-to-use in our factory."

Proven element façade

The facade consists of aluminum elements with louvers and aesthetic aluminum fins, SFS (steel frame structure) with rainscreen cladding and various windows and doors. The element façade is constructed with the Hueck Trigon Unit-L façade system. "It is a common and easily workable system that we have been carrying for years and with which we have already carried out various projects together with TGM, both in the United Kingdom and in the Netherlands," says Rob van der Sloot of Hueck. "Characteristic of this system is its high wind and water tightness of 600 Pascal, but we have even achieved values that are much higher. We use a number of standard variants within the Trigon Unit-L system, but most of the profiles are made to customer specifications. In this case, TGM was able to get away with a standard solution, although they put their own spin on it."

Point charge

Hueck was responsible for the condensation and heat calculations, for the rest TGM was "self supporting" in the construction of the element façade of the Gramercy Tower. "The cooperation with Hueck is always very pleasant," Jeroen believes. "Questions are always responded to quickly and adequately and they are also willing to think along in solutions. That just works very nicely." What makes the facade extra special are the vertical and horizontal aesthetic aluminum fins. "In the UK, glass cleaning is mostly done by abseilers. The aluminum fins are engineered for a point load of 120 kilograms. These forces must be absorbed by the fin and conducted back to the element, or facade suspension. Besides theoretically calculated, we also tested that fact internally on a test element." 

The 1,400 elements (4,600 m2) were prefabricated prepared at TGM Production's plant in Belgium, including the aluminum fins. "On site, they were hoisted in and anchored to the concrete structure. The tolerances were minimal. Moreover, it was quite a puzzle to get the aluminum fins to line up properly. In the vertical plane, they are therefore coupled together." The facade image is anything but repetitive, which is why different variants of the element facade were produced: narrow, wide, with window, with louver, etc. The elements are also interspersed with so-called rainscreen cladding in two colors, accounting for a total of another 2,000 m2 of facade area. "It is precisely this diversity that makes it a very interesting building to keep looking at," Jeroen believes.