Merrion House, Leeds
January 2020

Wictec curtain walling from WICONA has been used to create a bespoke façade for the refurbished Merrion House, Leeds City Council’s offices.

Fabricated by Façade & Glazing Solutions (FGS), Wictec was specified for its slim face width and strength to carry brick slip feature beams with steel frame reinforcements.

The £42million refurbishment of the city centre 1970s office building was part of the Leeds City Council’s ‘Change in the Workplace’ strategy, designed to unite staff from multiple buildings under one roof to create a better working environment, whilst also reducing rental costs.

The refurbishment also included the creation of an additional 15,500 m2 of office space in an annex building which is linked via an atrium to a new community hub including several retail spaces on the ground floor.

The building was designed by architectural practice BDP and delivered by main contractor BAM Construction, while the curtain walling system was supplied and installed by FGS.

FGS proposed the use of Wictec curtain walling for the project, selecting Wictec 50 and Wictec 60 stick system curtain walling. Paul Rose, Commercial Director of FGS said: “We proposed a robust full vertical envelope formed entirely from curtain walling, which would then be used to hang the brick slip feature beams and columns from suitably strengthened insulated panels built in to the curtain walling. This approach avoided hundreds of metres of interface compared to a more conventional approach using a steel framing system behind the cladding.

“As such we had to make sure that the cladding system chosen would be able to hold the additional load of the beams and columns. The Wictec system was strengthened to our design to carry these additional loads. A significant proportion of our work is completed using WICONA systems and we really appreciate the commercial and technical support provided by the brand – it is one of WICONA’s USPs.”

www.wicona.com/en/uk/range-of-systems/facades/