Sky high in architectural glazing: Liverpool’s landmark Horizon Heights

This flagship new build student accommodation development, comprising over 1,000 bedrooms across two tower blocks of 21 and 19 storeys, is located on a cleared brownfield site opposite Liverpool’s Lime Street Station.

The development is a mixture of cluster and studio flats with communal areas and ground floor retail space. It is part of a detailed landscaping plan that will revitalise the retail area and enhance the pedestrian experience for both locals and visitors to the city.

For the client Unite Students, architects Falconer Chester Hall designed the two towers to respect the local context of both the train station and the nearby buildings in the aesthetics and materials used and specified Metal Technology for the façade. It is the largest single building completed to date by this developer and architect with a material palette which includes aluminium cladding, a series of perforated panels and curtain walling with window inserts.

     

For this project with an installed value of £7m, Metal Technology also worked closely with fabricator Walsin for main contractor McAleer and Rushe and developed a bespoke chamfered 230mm curtain wall cap which was used to create a pod around the perimeter of the glazed curtain walling.

Products used were Metal Technology’s System 5-35 THERM_AL Tilt turn Window suite, System 17 Curtain Walling with bespoke cap, System 23 louvres (P33) and System 5-20D THERM_AL door.

This significant BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rated scheme won the Student Accommodation award at RICS Social Impact Awards 2020 and is a finalist in the Tall Buildings Awards 2020 for “Best Tall Building Architect”, which recognises professional architects or architectural organisations who offer detailed explanations into technical and creative reasoning behind the specification of particular materials and systems.

Metal Technology MD Calvin Wilson said “working collaboratively with Walsin to bespoke this challenging technical solution for such a signature building is evidence of our capabilities to deliver a project to meet advanced design demands and we are delighted to have our systems showcased in such a landmark development”.

All Metal Technology’s systems are designed to perform seamlessly together to deliver the desired aesthetic and performance standards. Used individually or together, they offer complete design flexibility for creative expression with the assurance of value-engineered structural, weather and security performance.