Architect: West & Machell
Fabricator: Fox Aluminium
Products: Grid and Trame Horizontale curtain walling, concealed windows
The Qube bar and 19 apartments that form Broderick Court provide an imposing new boundary structure for Millennium Square in the centre of Leeds. Glazed in a range of complementary curtain walling and window systems from Technal, the scheme has a commanding presence situated between the architecturally significant Civic Hall and Civic Theatre.
Sitting on a thick tiered granite plateau, Technal’s grid curtain walling was used by architects West & Machell and set into warm ochre sandstone cladding to form the front elevation, which encloses the double height café bar.
The apartments above are recessed from the frontage, allowing balconies to run the entire width of the building. Here, continuous runs of Trame Horizontale curtain walling are glazed in 6mm clear glass and 10mm low E Planitherm reflective glass to provide excellent thermal performance and sound attenuation. Concealed windows naturally ventilate the apartments.
The Architect’s Perspective
Robin Machell, West & Machell:
“The double height glazing to the café bar allows uninterrupted views of the square whilst giving a sense of enclosure. We selected the Trame system for the apartments because we liked the ellipsed profiles which allowed us to add interest to the envelope and offer high levels of thermal and acoustic performance.”