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Draining Fort Dunlop
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The Fort Dunlop building on the M6 in Birmingham is undergoing an advantageous scheme of modernisation culminating in its opening towards the end of 2006.
Daring to tread where others fear to go, Urban Splash are regenerating the 80 year old former tyre manufacturing facility into a prestigious office, hotel and retail development for owners Advantage West Midlands. The building itself has an interesting past. Starting life as a factory it has since been used as a theatre, while, at 130m long and 24m high providing the backdrop for the world’s largest car ad.
The £50m project, managed by Faithful and Gould was designed by Liverpool Architects ShedKm and includes a green roof above the offices and retail space. This will be larger than a football pitch, and is being created to retain the diverse wildlife, including black redstarts that have come to see the building as their home.
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As a consequence, there have been detailed discussions about how the grass roof will affect the building’s rainwater drainage.
After careful consideration the contract to design and install the rainwater system was given to specialists RWP (UK) Ltd of Sheffield. While the main roof will be drained siphonically, the balconies on the penthouses and apartments will be drained using a traditional gravity system.
Darren Pickersgill, Technical Director of RWP (UK) Ltd talked of the specifics of the installation,
“The only real change to the siphonic system for the grass and sedum roof has been the addition of a secondary filter to the leaf guard to ensure that any debris from the roof does not collect around the outlet. The system is standard in all other respects”.
“Because the pipework will be visible on the façade of the building we had to install a product that will blend well with the external appearance. “After careful consideration we selected BLÜCHER EuroPipe®. It is easy to install, needs little maintenance, looks great and stays that way. The relationship we have formed with the manufacturer meant that the installation has run smoothly and on time. The project provides excellent examples of both gravity and siphonic drainage systems. “
Peter Hardiman MD of Blucher UK Ltd commented,
“Use of our product in a prestigious project such as this illustrates how seriously stainless steel drainage is now being considered by specifiers. It highlights BLÜCHER EuroPipe®’s versatility in particular, and reflects its quality and suitability for rainwater applications.”
Hidden behind the ad hoarding during construction, the unveiled, completed building will, for travellers on the M6, be a striking first image of what Birmingham has to offer.
For further information, please call BLÜCHER on tel. 01937 838 000
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