Specifier’s choice
TAKING TO THE SLOPES A Design and Build contract was key to the delivery of FaulknerBrowns’ Chill Factore, writes Sutherland Lyall
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FaulknerBrowns’ Chill Factore ski slope is located next to the Trafford Centre, less than 7km from Manchester city centre. The firm had already built the UK’s three other realsnow indoor slopes – at Milton Keynes and Castleford (both Xscape) and Braehead, Scotland (SNO!zone) – but this was the first for Chill Factore client Extreme Cool. Real-snow slopes – of which there are several at the Chill Factore – are an advance on the plastic-brush versions which first gave skiers year-round facilities. The main slope cantilevers up and out over the site, measuring AJ SPECIFICATION 08.08
176m long and 40m wide. Alongside the run is a 52m-long learners’ slope of similar width, with a 20m-wide, 58m-long toboggan-only hill in between. Where the slopes hit the ground there is a two-level warmside zone. In this area, skiers can buy tickets, hire equipment and change their kit. On the first floor of the warmside zone they can relax at a bar or dine overlooking the ski slope beyond the glass, whose walls are covered with giant transfers of Alpine scenery. There are ski lifts on either side of the main slopes, while on the learner slope is an >>
This image The main indoor ski slope at the Chill Factore
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PHILLIP HANDFORTH
Chill Factor e, Manchester, by FaulknerBrowns
Specifier’s choice
‘These ski slopes are not like normal commissions’
inclined travelator. The warmside zone is reached from the car park and main entrance via a cranked shopping street. STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORK The big slope is made up of a propped cantilever supported by a vertical wedge, which is actually a steel framework in Prisma Zeus-coated Corus profiled sheeting with a Kalzip-clad escape stair attached to its back. FaulknerBrowns partner Ben Sykes explains: ‘The whole building is heavily piled and there is a steel structural frame supporting the huge incline, which is a concrete slab. What they do in Europe is to extrude the column grid up the slope without any voids. We thought we would express the dynamic of the ski slope, so, towards the top, the cantilevered structure is relatively sophisticated. It is engineered by Mitchell McFarlane, which worked on some of our earlier slopes.’ INNOVATIVE COMMISSION Sykes says: ‘These ski slopes are pretty
pioneering. They are not quite like normal architectural commissions. While the other ski slopes rely [business-wise] on retail and leisure facilities, including cinemas, Trafford doesn’t. That means the money comes from different sources. At Trafford we couldn’t afford the long tender stage of a conventional contract. So, [contractor] Sir Robert McAlpine worked with us on the design from day one. We knew that the business plan meant we were aiming for £24 million, which turned out to be £24.6 million, and we all signed up on that contract sum. We were rushing to hit the beginning of the season, which started in October the next year [2007].’ DESIGN AND BUILD CONTRACT Sykes adds: ‘This was a negotiated Design and Build contract based on JCT98. Under it the architect had the normal client-architect relationship, and just before we went on site we were novated to the main contractor. ‘As a practice we have embraced Design and Build,’ Sykes continues. ‘But not blindly. In >>
Right The main ski slope comprises a propped cantilever, supported by a steel framework of Prisma Zeus-coated Corus profiled sheeting, with a Kalzip-clad escape stair attached
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Specifier’s choice 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
Entrance Ski shop Plant Warmside Ski box at low level Void under ski slope Store Service Chiller compound Skatepark Balcony Ski box Beginners/training slopes 14. Flat 15. Main slope
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Specifier’s choice
Above East (top), north (left) and south (right) elevations
Below Aerial view of the construction site revealing the building’s steel frame
‘We have embraced Design and Build’ its first phases in the 1980s and ’90s, everyone was sceptical. But if you get the relationships right then it doesn’t have to have the textbook deficits of poor quality. When you talk about as complicated a building as this with as short a construction time, if someone had said “Do it on a traditional contract,” we would have said “You’re crackers”. On construction-driven schemes, I’m not sure if there is a viable alternative to Design and Build. ‘We used NBS and we chose the products. But the beauty of having McAlpine on board at the beginning was that we could share out the experience. So we listened. There was a good spirit, a lot of mutual respect – and, to all intents and purposes, an open book.’ CRITICAL TEMPERATURES The temperature of the ski boxes is held at -4°C during operation and can go down to -14°C when snow is being made. Sykes says: ‘The ski-box cladding involves very onerous performance demands, and we have resorted to conventional Hemsec cold-store panels, >> 22
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Specifier’s choice
Left and below The two-storey warmside zone overlooks the slopes Bottom Bundles of polished glass strips create restaurant screens
Split glass screens with polished edges complete the icy look
PHILLIP HANDFORTH
the sort used for chilled store facilities. We always use a foam core because there are fewer voids for water to ice up than with a mineral core.’ In fact, the cavity between the inner and outer layers has trace heating to minimise icing. Sykes says: ‘The down side is that these panels normally look very crude and they are fixed on the inside of the structural frame to avoid cold bridging. You see them in Germany and they look like pit-heads. So, we over-clad the boxes [using rails fixed to the outside of the steel structural frame]. There are rules for the over-cladding. We have used strongly grained products and, whereas all the cladding guys wanted it horizontal or vertical, we wanted it to follow the incline, so it was aligned with the eaves. It was technically easier to align it with the slope at the bottom, but it didn’t look right.’ The over-cladding has Kalbau stucco-embossed aluminium with a trapezoidal profile from Kalzip along the upper zone of the long elevations, and a translucent Rodeca multi-celled plain >> 24
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Specifier’s choice
The ski slopes have 1m of snow over a mat of glycol pipes
polycarbonate along the lower zone. The roof is Keybemo stucco-embossed aluminium standing seam sheet, which has a rounded tongue-and-groove-style locking with secret fixing. Insulation is made up of the same PIR-cored Hemsec panels used on the walls, in a sky blue colour. The ski-slope floors have 1m or so of snow over a mat of glycol pipes and other freezing technology. This is insulated from below with 150mm Styrofoam panels with foam infilling, and protected from the snow and skiers above by steel panels. INNER RESOURCES Sykes says, ‘We pitched independently for the
interior design and won. The adviser was an ex-Center Parcs guy, who wanted an “authentic” Alpine experience. So we agreed on the feel of the interiors. It’s all about using texture and tonality, wood and stone in a straightforward way.’ The floors are oak from Kahrs and the stonework is by Ecopiedra. ‘It’s stone slips, lightweight aggregate and marble dust, and comes in stiff sheets already mortared up,’ says Sykes. A lightweight timber grid by Gariff Construction and Joinery minimises the effect of the restaurant’s high ceiling. The area has split glass screens from Big Studio Glass Design, made of small strips bonded with polished edges, to complete the icy look. <
The roof is Keybemo stucco-embossed aluminium standing seam sheet, which has tongue-and-groovestyle locking with secret fixing
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Specifier’s choice
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PHILLIP HANDFORTH
Client Extreme Cool Architect FaulknerBrowns Main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine Quantity surveyor Roger Wenn Partnership Structural engineer Mitchell McFarlane International Services engineer Hulley & Kirkwood Snow system designer Acer Snowmec Form of contract JCT Standard Gross internal floor area 23,225m2 Total cost £25 million Start on site January 2006 Completion on site November 2007
Specifier’s choice
MATERIALS BOARD FAULKNERBROWNS ITEM
DETAILS
01.
AltroCast Plus Quartz in white by Altro. www.altro.com
Hard-wearing homogenous floor with quartz inclusions, selected to give the appearance of snow
02.
Carpet by Christy. www.christycarpets.com
Chosen for its pattern and performance
03.
Cedar shiplap cladding from Gariff Construction and Joinery. www.gariff.co.uk
Used as lift cladding
04.
Swedish fifth fir shiplap wall panel by Gariff Construction and Joinery
Traditional and authentic Alpine approach to wall cladding
05.
Glass panel used as restaurant screen by Big Studio Glass Design. www.big-studio.co.uk
Bespoke split-face, stacked-glass panel comprising strips of cut glass that are UV-bonded to create a glass sheet which sparkles like ice
06.
Canadian cedar shingles supplied by Gariff Construction and Joinery
Natural cedar shingles emphasise authenticity and quality, and facilitate the soft sweeping walls
07.
Larch strip by Gariff Construction and Joinery
Used for its bending properties to create a curved area within the bar
08.
York stone to internal street pavement by Hard York Quarries. www.hardyorkquarries.co.uk
Traditional natural stone suitable for pavement application. Consistent iron veining matches the general colour palette
09.
Laja Cobriza cladding by Ecopiedra. www.ecopiedra.com
This material is light enough to apply to standard stud walls
10.
Solaglas glass panel by Saint-Gobain. www.saint-gobain.co.uk
Decorative backlit laminated glass panel, used as main feature within bar
11. & 13.
Translucent wall overcladding in raspberry red and sky blue by Rodeca. www.rodeca.de
This relatively expensive cladding was worth the investment. It is backlit by night and reveals the structural depth of the construction
12.
Kalbau stucco-embossed aluminium profiled sheet by Corus. www.kalzip.com
Used as wall overcladding, this trapezoidal sheet removes direct solar load and wind load
14.
Aluminium standing seam profiled sheet by Keybemo. www.keybemo.co.uk
This profile metal forms the roof overcladding. The grain aligns with the wall cladding for a dynamic look and the unpainted product is easy to maintain
15.
Kalzip perforated standing seam profiled metal sheeting by Corus. www.kalzip.com
Used as escape stair cladding, Kalzip allows the stair to be naturally lit by day
16.
Tegula concrete sett paving by Marshalls. www.marshalls.co.uk
Procuring this traditional external cobble in red/charcoal fitted the project’s timescale
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