An £8.1 million events building at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, is using external decorative column casings, bulkheads and parapet capping from Encasement to conceal structural steelwork and enhance the building’s exterior for the thousands of visitors it receives each year.
Designed by Glenn Howells Architects (GHA), the ‘Aspects’ events building provides a permanent facility with flexible spaces at the Arboretum enabling a wide range of events to be held in the 2,500 sq.m building, which incorporates a banqueting kitchen, lounge area and configurations to host up to 500 people.
Both the main entrance canopy and the covered terrace area at the rear of the building are supported by 12 structural columns, each of which are concealed by 200mm square decorative casings from Encasement’s Forma range of metal casings.
Standing 4,500mm high, the column casings are manufactured from Alucobond®, an architectural composite that bonds an aluminium skin to a flame retardant or non-combustible core material to give a strong, lightweight and safe decorative solution.
As the building makes extensive use of glazing to provide panoramic views of the Arboretum site, Encasement also supplied a further eight Forma Alucobond ‘half-column’ casings to conceal the glazing system’s external vertical supports to integrate with the building’s exterior design.
To maintain a consistent exterior finish, 20 Alucobond exterior bulkheads from Encasement’s ‘Vecta’ range
were supplied by the company in sections along with a series of PPC
coated aluminium parapet cappings.
Martin Taylor, Encasement’s Managing Director, commented, “This new building is an excellent addition to the high quality visitor facilities already available at the Arboretum. The quality of the design, construction and the attention to detail is typified by the architect’s specification for the use of Alucobond for the casings solutions, which gives a perfect finish to the building.”
Further information on the company’s range of column casings and other architectural casing products for can be obtained by visiting www.encasement.co.uk; e-mailing sales@encasement.co.uk or by calling 01733 266889.
