Duncan House, Stratford, London E15 2JB
Duncan House Headline Facts:
1,487 reconstructed stone panels, covering 18,500 square meters.
Contractor : Watkins and Jones
Architect : Hodder and Partners
The Finer Details :
Duncan House in Stratford, London is a mixed-use development which offers residential apartments, student bedrooms, academic space and has a roof garden and sky lounge. Designed by Hodder and Partners and with Watkin Jones as the main contractor, this development completed in September/October 2019.
The 9-storey podium block of the development defines the street edge and responds to the lower rise buildings surrounding the site. The podium’s right-angle arrangement within its site allows a significant piece of public realm to be formed at the junction of High Street with Lett Road. The composition of the tower with its fins creates a striking silhouette against the sky.
Techrete were engaged to design, manufacture and install the 1,487 panels, covering the 18,500 square meters of cladding which makes up the façade of Duncan House. The reconstructed stone mix chosen for the project was C280 with a light pigment and an acid etched finish.
The structural precast columns to the first floor were manufactured by Techrete and create right angle public colonnade.
Approximately 2,500 windows were fitted at our factory to the panels and the combination of these panels, together with the concrete infill as well as louvres which were also fitted in our factory, make up the façade of the structure.
Creating the moulds for the 1,487 panels with high repetition was always going to be a challenge. Steel moulds were developed to facilitate this, and bespoke steel cassettes were vital in speeding up the process of casting the window panels in particular.
Three Techrete teams installed the panels using three tower cranes and due to the high-rise nature of the building, the Bomecon counter-balance rig was utilised to assist with the installation while the core structure was still being completed over-head.
Duncan House is mainly a student residence, and it is a prestigious project to add to Techrete’s student residence portfolio, particularly in the city of London. Following on from the successful completion of the project, Techrete entered talks with the main contractor, Watkin Jones for the tendering of several other projects.
Duncan House won ‘Best Tall Building – Facade Engineering Project of the year’ at the Tall Building Awards in December 2020 and has achieved a ‘BREEAM Excellent’ rating.