Broadside, Kent
Client: Chatham Maritime
Architect: Hazle McCormack Young
Contractor: Wallis
Type of works: design and manufacture of a brick support system.

Broadside is a five storey office building, located on the banks of the River Medway in Kent.

Ancon designed and manufactured a brick support system for the project’s most striking feature; an attractive four-storey screen wall which is curved on plan.

At openings along the length of the wall, special Ancon soffit angles fix to the underside of the structural beam to support the brickwork from above, and soldier courses of brick are suspended from stirrups fixed to a special Ancon MDC support system.

Ancon’s continuous support angle was supplied in short lengths, to allow for the curve of the structural steelwork.

The depth of the fixing brackets varies to suit the cavity size at each fixing location, which ranges from 75mm to 150mm. In order to minimise site delays and installation difficulties, the Ancon system was modified prior to manufacture to suit the findings of a site cavity survey.

Broadside was designed by architect Hazle McCormack Young LLP and was named Most Sustainable Building (South East) at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Awards 2007. The façade was erected by Wallis, a division of Kier.


Images courtesy of Hazle McCormack Young LLP