Buchanan Partnership

Job: The Buchanan Galleries. Glasgow
Value: Orsogril^® grating panels, £67,000
Architect: Jenkins & Marr
Managing Contractor: Bovis Europe
Sub-Contractor: J & T Blacksmiths Ltd

Project: a major shopping centre with a ten-storey car park in the heart of Glasgow in a prestige location adjacent to the new Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and Queen Street Station.

Brief: to provide infill for the large ventilation openings between the floors of the car park. The building was constructed as a concrete frame with brick and glass block cladding to the elevations and had to be aesthetically pleasing as well as complying with all the standards required by building regulations.

Client's specifications for Orsogril^®: Infill gratings to large openings on the external elevation (1,000 x 2,600mm to 13,700 x 3,700mm) To allow for ventilation throughout the car floors Small mesh gratings for security The shopping centre and car park had to be of an architectural standard to attract major UK retailers, Sainsbury's and The John Lewis Partnership.

Solution: Orsogril^® Sterope and Orsogril^® Potissimum
The rigid grating panels are constructed from mild steel flat bars and round bars electrofused together. The Sterope 62 x 132/25 x 3mm was used on three elevations and Potissimum 25 x 24/25 x 2mm was used on the two elevations that faced the railway where there was a specific safety requirement that a 25mm sphere should not be capable of passing through the grating.

The total area of grating was 1,300m². Orsogril^® was responsible for the design of the stainless-steel brackets and fixings which connected the panels of Sterope and Potissimum to the building structure. These had to accommodate any structural movement and therefore each panel was fixed at the top and restrained at the bottom.

The panels were galvanised and then polyester powder coated colour RAL 7036.

The design was developed by Orsogril^®'s technical office in Italy with UK consulting engineers, WA Faithurst & Partners with coordination provided by Orsogril^®'s UK technical office. The managing contractor put the work out to tender as a Trade Package and a number of steel fabricators bid for the work. Orsogril^® then supplied the panels to the chosen steel fabricator to site sizes and workshop drawings.