Canary Wharf is home to some of the world’s most famous financial services brands, all of which depend on secure storage of customer data.
Now those companies will be sitting shoulder to shoulder with a new Tier 3 data centre, The Point, thanks to a development by TH Real Estate, one of the world’s largest property investment management firms.
Occupying a waterfront location at Millwall Inner Dock, the three-storey data centre has been designed to meet the secure data storage requirements of Canary Wharf occupiers and complement the quality and aesthetics of other buildings in the vicinity.
To achieve this, the building has been clad with natural granite from Shackerley’s SureClad ventilated façade system range. The large format quarried stone façade panels are complemented by eye-catching integral louvres that cover ventilation grates, fabricated by Shackerley using the same highly polished natural granite.
Targeting high end data centre operator tenants, The Point has been specified to impress, with N+1 resilience to prevent data loss in the event of power outages, a 15.5MVA power supply and a net technical area of 5,575m2 with 1.5kW/m2 power density.
Delivered as a design and build project by North East contractor, Metnor Construction, the £21 million scheme boasts an equally impressive building envelope specification.
All elements of the building fabric were selected to meet a BREEAM Excellent design requirement and the SureClad natural granite ventilated façade system was precision-fabricated by Shackerley to ensure the cladding addresses the complexities of the building’s design to provide a prestige aesthetic and robust finish.
Explains Mike Dunn from Metnor Construction: “The development is in a very prominent location and there was a requirement from both the client and the planning authority to ensure that the façade reflects the calibre of its surroundings and demonstrates genuine visual synergy with the existing adjacent property.
“Shackerley worked with our design and procurement team from the earliest stages of the specification to ensure the materials used meet the aesthetic, durability and functionality requirements of the building, resulting in the use of the SureClad system using natural granite in two colourways.”
The building that sits next door to the site for The Point was constructed using natural stone and Metnor Construction originally approached Shackerley to discuss specification of the company’s SureClad ceramic granite ventilated façade system to achieve a close visual equivalent.
However, when it became clear that the specification preference was for natural granite, Shackerley sourced a product that offers an excellent match with the legacy building, cutting, finishing and pre-fabricating the required panels in house at the company’s ISO 9001 quality assured manufacturing facility in Lancashire.
The external elevations at The Point combine glazed curtain walling with SureClad natural granite cladding and integral granite louvres, which were also fabricated at Shackerley’s production facility.
The specification called for two highly polished granite colourways; a white granite with silver and dark grey speckling to ‘frame’ the dark-tinted glazing and create the louvres, and a black granite with grey marbling to create feature entrances. In total, Shackerley supplied 3,425 separate granite items that had been custom-fabricated for the scheme.
Mike Dunn continues: “The requirements for the project were very specific. For the main façade elements in the white speckled granite we required two thickness of panel, 20mm and 40mm, while the black panels were required in a 30mm profile.
“Shackerley was able to accommodate all the demands of the scheme and provided all elements of the façade to site, fully pre-fabricated with the SureClad Hang On system to ensure a secure, robust installation that could handle the weight of the natural stone façade material.”
Amongst the complexities of the project was the need for precision cut outs on the feature entrance canopies.To cut the black marbled granite for these sections, Shackerley used special water-jet cutting and shaping equipment.
Fabrication of the louvres was a unique element of the project, calling upon the expertise of Shackerley’s experienced technical team and advanced cutting, polishing and shaping equipment to produce each section.
The majority of the louvres were fabricated to a length of 742mm and a width of 203mm with a 40mm depth, with 1054 louvres produced at this size and a further 377 louvres produced with an extended length of 792mm. Each of these pieces of granite was shaped with a champfered back edge at the top, requiring precision horizontal cutting of the detail to create a 10mm profile at the top edge and reduce the rear length by 30mm. All end panels were also polished on all exterior facing surfaces.
The edge louvre for each ventilation grate section was fabricated as a rectangular section of granite with no champfered edge. All edge louvres were cut to a depth of 40mm and a width of 160mm, including x22 742mm long and x11 792mm long pieces.
Mike Dunn adds: “The louvre detailing is an unusual and complicated element of the building design and getting this right was vital to the finished appearance of the building, particularly as the louvres have been installed at ground floor level, so they are very visible when approaching the data centre on foot or viewing it from the river.
“Shackerley’s technical expertise and production capabilities meant that we were able to procure both the façade system and the louvres for the external elevations from a single supplier, ensuring consistency of materials and finish across the building.”
The Point is now completed following a two-phase project involving construction of two new build data centres connected by a link bridge.
The use of natural granite not only fulfils the client and planning office brief for cohesion of aesthetics and materiality but also contributes to a prestigious, BREEAM excellent finished building that is designed to stand the test of time.