Quantal selected for 3,347 sq m equatorial installation
Sash UK has completed a massive 3,347 sq m luminatrium installation in Equatorial Guinea, Africa using the aluminium roofing system from Quantal.
Featuring three octagonal and two extensive square sections linked by glass corridors, Quantal was specified for the project through Sash and the Italian architectural practice, Makinen Venture Corporation, which created the design.
One of the largest installations of its type anywhere in the world, sheer scale, logistics and climate posed the greatest challenges.
Colin Poole, conservatory director, Sash UK said: "The location of the site presented us with the single biggest challenge, along with differences in technologies and very different working practices.
"The scale of the project meant that the use of an engineered system critical. The other main element was the extremity of the climate, which made an aluminium system the only suitable choice."
Offering a specialist conservatory, luminatrium and orangery export operation, to areas as far flung as America, Australia, Cyprus and Africa, Sash UK pre-manufactured the Quantal system in its Barnsley factory, before export to Equatorial Guinea where it was installed by a local workforce.
The project will provide a substantial extension to the living quarters of the original property including banqueting hall and botanical garden which will house a collection of unusual and exotic flora.
Ian Cocken, general sales manager, Quantal, said: "The Quantal system is a comprehensive roofing system and because it's a comprehensive system it is far more versatile and suitable for a greater range of designs, for example variable pitches and a valley detail design fully geared to bespoke structures – it's a complete glass roofing system with the structural integrity to deliver large scale projects."
The system features a number of innovations among them, the patented RotaFit twist-and-lock allowing Quantal's new hip bars to be fitted without the need for nuts or bolts; a Jack Rafter system, delivering improved weather tightness through precise factory-fabricated sections, speeding up installation time by creating positive location for all fixings; and Twin fast, a simple fixing system allows installers to slide glazing bars into place while Twinfast's in built spacer to create the perfect glazing plane.
The system also features a structural box gutter eaves beam that supports pitches of up to 40 degrees on gables and lean-tos without the need for mechanical fixings; UniRidge, designed to address a range of design problems and which can be used on pitches between 22 and 30 degrees, accepting 24mm DGSU; and a Valley Detail, designed to speed up glazing and increases design flexibility through a new glazing stop that eliminates glazing slip.
For more information about Quantal, part of the Epwin Group, please contact 01626 832355 or visit www.quantal.co.uk.
