Sotech delivers seven shades of rainscreen for Downing Plaza

A landmark building in Newcastle, The View at Downing Plaza offers a new concept in student accommodation for the city’s many university and college students.

Working closely with Dane Architectural  Systems, Sotech provided 2300sqm of economical and versatile Optima TFC rainscreen for the The View at Downing Plaza.

The building appears to be extremely reflective and replicates the look of glass due to the 70% gloss level used in the 7 shades of blue ppc finish.  The Optima rainscreen was produced in 3000 series aluminium, which provides a higher tensile strength than stock grade and was used in order to maintain the flatness of the panels. 340sqm of Titanium brushed Larson ACM was also supplied in the Optima TFC rainscreen.

In addition to this, Sotech also supplied 325 sqm bespoke profile panels which were part of the architect’s intent to enhance the aesthetics of the building.

One of the biggest obstacles Sotech faced on this development was the level of project management involved. The rainscreen panels needed to be manufactured and delivered in accordance with the 7 shades of blue that were specified. This required Sotech to work from the project’s elevation design to ensure the panels were delivered to site in the correct order for installation. Sotech were fully responsible for controlling how the batches of panels left their manufacturing facility and were organised on site, and executing this effectively was crucial for the successful installation that was achieved.

Sotech’s Jamie Brown, the Estimator for this project, has said that “Though this project was quite challenging from an operational perspective, it was a great one to be involved with. We pride ourselves on being able to supply a solution to an architect’s needs and we believe we have done so with The View.

“It was a pleasure to see the variation in colour come to life as the building was completed, and it may be one of our most visually impressive case studies yet.”

The View is Sotech’s third project in the Downing Plaza development in Newcastle, and they are hoping to have secured a 4th for launch at the end of 2015.

Sotech has invested heavily in sophisticated design and manufacturing technology and remains the only rainscreen manufacturer to offer a system that is both independently tested to CWCT standards and achieves LPCB Red Book accreditation.

The training facility and showroom are open to specifiers and contractors, where all Sotech’s Optima Rainscreen Systems are on display alongside the widest selection of materials and finishes, including pre and post coat aluminium, ACM, copper, zinc, stainless steel, digital print and anodised.