We installed aluminium windows, doors, shopfronts and curtain walling in the landmark HKR building on Hackney Road, Hoxton. Clad in Corten weathered steel with GRC panels and featuring sunning, digitally printed fritted glass, it’s a mixed-use development with commercial space on the ground floor and luxury apartments on the ten floors above, including in the ‘Lantern Tower’.

It’s an example of our growing strength in the new build sector and really demonstrates our expertise not just in aluminium windows and doors, but in curtain walling as well.

We successfully integrated the curtain walling with the unusual Corden weathered steel cladding, working closely with the specialist cladding contractor on tests to ensure that the fixings used had the integrity necessity to withstand all the pull-out forces. We also installed additional watertight panelling behind the cladding to maintain the overall U-Values of the façade.

We even managed a change in curtain walling specification mid-way through the build; and worked closely with the design team and Schüco themselves to complete the project in a bespoke façade solution using Schüco’s FWS 50 mullion and 70mm transom capped system, rather than the original FWS structural glazed system.

We installed two elevations of the curtain walling from cradles and brought specialist plant to site to manoeuvre the fritted glazing because the main tower crane on the site couldn’t access this part of the building – much of the time working under Covid-19 social distancing restrictions.