Monthly Email News for the Architectural Aluminium Industry

V&A Dundee
February 2018

GLASSOLUTIONS was commissioned to provide a mullion-only curtain wall system for the £80.11 million construction of the new V&A Museum of Design, Dundee, the centrepiece of the city’s £1 billion waterfront regeneration programme, due to open later this year.

Designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma & Associates V&A Dundee comprises galleries, exhibitions and learning centres within the 8,500m2 facility.

With a slatted, multi-layered external appearance, as well as its ‘prow’-shaped facade which juts out over the Tay, the complex geometry of V&A Dundee’s design presented a number of unique challenges for specifying and installing its component parts. Glassolutions was tasked with creating a flush mullion profile which would provide uniformity and consistency across all of the building’s elevations, as well as being capable of withstanding the marine environment next to the river.

Glassolutions was awarded the contract to manufacture and install a building envelope comprising the Contracting division’s VS-1 curtain walling system; due to the building’s waterfront location, this was required to be capable of withstanding a wave load, as high as 32,000 pascals.

Streamlined aesthetics were achieved using the VS-1 installation by installing a bespoke mullion with thicker side walls, allowing the fixings to be countersunk. This vertical-only structure means that the glass wall visually ‘floats’, presenting an entirely glazed.

For the aspects of the building’s envelope fitted with the VS-1 system, the company developed a bespoke mullion profile which could be utilised on all screens and would be able to accommodate the potential 32kN/m2 ‘wave load’.

Commercial director John Foster said: “Faced with delivering the structural strength solution required, we were asked to provide a conventional mullion profile for the building envelope, fitting for the complex geometry of the building.

“We overcame unique challenges of completing the installation to the south façade in close proximity to the river and we are delighted that our flagship VS-1 curtain wall system proved to be the perfect solution to meet both the wave load and aesthetic expectations of the contractor and architect.”

www.glassolutions.co.uk

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