Bolan Rugs from Loomspace
Praised by the world’s leading fashion designers, interior designers and architects, rugs made by acclaimed Swedish design company Bolon are now exclusively available in Ireland from Loomspace@RugArt. Loomspace is a new Irish venture headed up by Ray O’Connor that stocks leading European manufacturers such as Bolon, Bentzon, Vorwerk, Lano, Rols and Whitespace. Bolon’s history starts in Stockholm, in 1949 when Nils-Erik Eklund had a genial idea and started to manufacture woven rag rugs from textile waste from the neighbouring factory. Eventually, the textiles were abandoned and replaced by plastic. Sisters Marie and Annica took over the enterprise from their parents in 2003 and started the journey towards a design-driven Bolon with influences from the fashion world. The phrase ‘Floored by Fashion’ was born. www.bolon.com Loomspace@ RugArt, loomspace@rugart.ie, www.rugart.ie

Wicona Roof Glazing – Now Available in Ireland
Developed in Germany, the highly engineered Wicona Wictec 50 roof glazing system is now available in Ireland. This highly efficient solution for glazed roofs has been used extensively internationally on a wide range of technically challenging projects. The aluminium system, which can also be specified for vertical glazing applications, will achieve large roof spans and complex shapes such as domes, facets and pyramids on high specification architectural schemes.

Whilst still being simple to fabricate and install, saving time on site, the Wicona roof glazing option has been designed to provide highly efficient drainage – whether the requirement is for sloped glazing or more complex 3D glass roof constructions. It features penetrating transoms so the mullions and transoms overlap, allowing effective drainage on three levels, and avoiding pooling, which can result in water ingress. The Wictec 50 system has been engineered to create large unsupported spans, and is sufficiently robust to meet specific project requirements for glazed roofs such as wind and snow loads. It is a dry glazed system for water tightness without the need for sealants, and the Wictec 50 FP option has a fire rating to 30 minutes. Wicona is also the first façade specialist to offer a complete turnkey service for the building envelope – from design concepts to fabrication, installation, testing and handover.

Wicona’s Test Centre Generates 60% Electricity Surplus
One of the first energy-positive industrial buildings In Europe, the new dedicated test centre for Wicona’s façade products near Ulm, Germany has generated 60 per cent more electricity than it needs for its own consumption. The e3.5m scheme provides in-house testing facilities for new products and project-specific façade solutions which can then be independently certified to the latest European standards. The test centre is designed to be highly energy efficient and sustainable. Roof-mounted photovoltaic panels generate sufficient power for heating, lighting and operating the entire building, making it one of Europe’s first energy-positive production buildings. Daily energy monitoring has shown that the building has generated enough energy to be self-sufficient and to deliver a significant level of electricity into the national grid. (Track the energy performance www.zeb-bellenberg.com)

A key factor in helping to reduce the energy consumption of the building to as little as 23kWh/m2a – around the same as a standard passive house – is its highly efficient Wicona façade. This is integrated with the building services and low energy technology, and is also highly glazed to allow most of the product testing to be carried out without the need for artificial lighting.

E info.wiconaie@hydro.com, www.wicona.ie

Kalzip’s Futuristic Canopy Roof
Over 1,000m2 of convex and concave smooth curved Kalzip aluminium standing seam roof sheets have been installed on the impressive new Pudsey Bus Station by experienced Teamkal contractor, KGM Roofing Ltd. Built by Allenbuild Ltd for Metro, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, this futuristically designed canopy roof is attractively finished all round with a continuous ‘true’ curved bull-nosed fascia, also from Kalzip. Convex taper-curved to a 10 metre radii, the Kalzip sheets form full semi-circles on plan at both ends of the roof, while the soffits were ingeniously created by using a similar combination of downward facing concave curved Kalzip sheets.

The roof canopy is neatly finished with tightly curved aluminium bull-nosed fascias, polyester powder coated to RAL 9006, and an 80mm thick layer of  alzip Insulation 23 glass quilt, sandwiched between the Kalzip soffit and top sheets for rain-sound reduction. Produced using a unique manufacturing process, the ‘true’ curved fascias were designed to be invisibly fixed using a system of bonded butt straps which create a beautifully seamless finish to the roof’s eaves.

For further information and a copy of the ‘Kalzip Systems’ brochure, please visit www.kalzip.com

Article as seen in Architecture Ireland issue 258

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