Pembury Circus, Hackney

Pembury Circus, Hackney

Sector:
Residential
System:
Proteus HR, Proteus SC
Architect:
Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects

An award winning £45m mixed use development in Hackney has been built to inspire with multiple Proteus façade solutions, including ‘pixelated’ balcony screens.

Pembury Circus, designed by Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects for Peabody and Bellway Homes, was named Best Mixed Use Development at the 2016 LEAF (Leading European Architecture Forum) Awards.

Proteus HR rainscreen cladding and Proteus SC bespoke balcony and feature walk way cladding, as well as various cappings, window trims and flashings, helped the design team deliver a vibrant, visually appealing development that is helping transform this part of East London.

The architects specified Proteus HR for the façade elements because it is an integrated modular rainscreen cladding system, which gives the panels exceptional surface flatness and rigidity. This crisp, clean aesthetic is accentuated by the tight radii at the edges, creating the precise, geometric lines that are so desirable on modern building design.

The recessed joints between the Proteus HR rainscreen panels add another visual dimension at Pembury Circus, enabling the architects to use shadow lines to accentuate their design by compartmentalising elements of the façade.

All the Proteus HR rainscreen cladding panels were manufactured with a galvanised steel PPC finish in Akzo Nobel D2525 Golden Beach and Toleda. These two appealing matt metallic colours were specified because they complemented the buff coloured brickwork.

Further interest was added to the balcony areas using bespoke Proteus SC FORM perforated panels. These were specified in varying widths, with varying hole sizes in a random pattern, interlinked with bubble pressing indentations to create a three-dimensional aesthetic.

Proteus manufactured the balcony cladding from 3mm DX51 grade steel to achieve the require balustrade loading, and finished it in Akzo Nobel D2525 PPC Anodic Ice finish.

Completing the external works at Pembury Circus was Proteus SC cladding, specified for feature floor walkways. These incorporated the same bespoke Proteus SC FORM perforation pattern, although there was added complexity on this element as the panels had to span from floor to floor.

Proteus overcame this challenge by developing a simple spanning vertical ‘L’ rail that attached to concrete floor edges, along with bespoke brackets. The Proteus SC panel was then simply fixed to the vertical rails. The walkway panels were manufactured from 2mm DX51 Grade Steel with 60% undertaken in a RAL 9010 finish / 25% in a PPC Anodic Ice finish / and 15% in a Gold Pearl finish.

Simon Fraser, Director at Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects, said: “We are proud to have designed this award winning project which has significantly added to the regeneration of the Pembury Estate. The design response to urban context required a rich mix of materials with the rainscreen cladding and perforated panels, supplied by Proteus, making an important contribution to the desired aesthetic of the scheme.”

He added: “We liked the fact that Proteus uses quality materials and could provide the level of technical support required to achieve the high standard of the design intent.”

Pembury Circus replaced 35 hard to let bedsits with 268 high quality new homes, 50 percent of which are affordable, along with a nursery, community centre, shops, gymnasium, public square and play area.

All new homes achieve Code for Sustainable Home Level 4. The community centre and commercial space achieve BREEAM Excellent

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  • PPC Akzo Nobel D2525 Golden Beach and Toleda Steel Rainscreen
  • PPC Akzo Nobel D2525 Golden Beach and Toleda Steel Rainscreen
  • PPC Akzo Nobel D2525 Golden Beach and Toleda Steel Rainscreen
  • PPC Akzo Nobel D2525 Golden Beach and Toleda Steel Rainscreen