News / Press
Kingframe Building System at the Heart of Glasgow
31 Oct 2007
A new build residential/retail project in Glassford Street, Glasgow, posed a challenge for Keppie Architects and main contractor Xircon Ltd. On one of the city’s busiest streets and sandwiched between two existing occupied buildings, the site’s access was limited and construction potentially disruptive to passing traffic, pedestrians and neighbouring businesses.
Installer Gyplok Ltd solved the problem by specifying the loadbearing Kingframe Building System for the seven-storey structure - ground floor commercial units topped by 25 luxury apartments. The Kingframe Building System is a whole building construction method consisting of a range of off-site manufactured, loadbearing steel-framed wall panels and steel floor and roof cassettes. The system provides cost-effective, consistently high quality construction, and fast-track on-site assembly.
The wall frames on the elevations will be finished in stone or metal cladding and were factory-fitted with Kooltherm® K15 Rainscreen Board, and the internal frames left ready for plasterboard. The frames and floor/roof cassettes were loaded into containers and delivered to site ready for installation according to Gyplok’s schedule. Delivery lorries were able to pull in on the street next to the building and a single crane lifted the frames or cassettes into place within minutes in a very efficient process. This ensured the street was never obstructed and business went on as usual.
Specifying Kingframe Building System brings many key benefits, not least the ability to complete much of the structure off-site. This not only assures the client of build quality resulting from manufacture in a controlled environment, but also improves health and safety onsite with fewer labourers working at height. In addition, project costs and handover schedules are more predictable, and structures are closed off quicker than using conventional building methods such as blockwork.
The Glassford Street building has the unique feature that it is the first 2-hour fire rated light gauge steel framed building in the UK.
