STRUCTURAL GLAZING

“As part of our ongoing search to expand our supply chain, PRO Structures has bolstered our ability to integrate with and perform on prestige projects. These range from smaller industrial units with complex dynamic requirements through to the construction of our larger projects such as Royal Wharf, Europe’s largest privately funded residential development. The broad range of skills within Ron’s business are an asset to ours.”

– Darren Frost, Technical Director, Ridgeway Glazing

With an increasing demand for bespoke buildings, including sporting venues, supermarkets and car showrooms, with highly specialised glazed elevations, PRO Structures partners with structural glazing specialists such as Ridgeway Glazing and the WindowGlass Company, who design and install innovative aluminium and glazed architectural systems around the UK for the construction industry.

Specialist structural engineering input is needed for large glazed elevations, especially when they are faceted or inclined, which requires structural design checks of the aluminium window mullions and transoms to make sure they can withstand both wind and vertical loads.  Structural glazing has many benefits, allowing for broader architectural design flexibility; increasing thermal efficiency as the exterior exposure of metal framing is either reduced or eliminated; reducing or eliminating water and air infiltration, and reducing the potential for thermal breakage of glass.

Examples of our current work with structural glazing include:

• Our work on the 15-storey Royal Wharf/Caledonian Road mixed use development in London for glazing specialist Ridgeway is progressing apace, and we are proud to be providing the structural design for the glazed facades.
• We are also working for Ridgeway Glazing on five units at the Central Warehouse and Distribution Park in Avonmouth, and the Ensleigh North development in Bath which is transforming a disused MoD site into 72 retirement flats. Our work involves justifying the structural aluminium mullion sizes for patent glazed elevations, along with the mullion fixings for the structural framework.

Completed projects:

• The Somerset County Cricket Ground’s new pavilion, for the WindowGlass Company, whose extensive inclined glazing enables guests to fully enjoy the game while entertaining their clients.
• Waitrose, Bagshot, for Windowglass, whose angled glazed frontage is an essential part of the supermarket’s branding.
• The MVV Energy From Waste plant at Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth, for Windowglass.
• CERC St Dennis, a landmark energy recovery centre in Cornwall with high glazed elevations, also for Windowglass.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the service received from PRO Structures.  Very good communication, and even when I had to put the engineers under a lot of pressure for an unexpectedly quick deadline, we still received what we needed in time to finish a successful project.” – Andy Gainey, Project Coordinator, The Window Glass Company

For more information on our structural glazing experience, do get in touch via the contact form or email us on info@prostructures.co.uk.