Edgar Myles House

Case Study

CANNING TOWN, EAST LONDON

Edgar Myles House required a facade remediation to the 6-storey residential building, of 43 apartments and 6 town houses, for The Riverside Group housing association.

A striking blend of metallic gold and silver grey aluminium cassette panels makes up the rainscreen finish, comprising the following components:

Gold metallic panels wrap around the three principal elevations: the Courtyard, Anchor House and along Ordnance Road. The panels, in 4 heights and varying lengths, are arranged in a distinctive staggered pattern with shadow gap joints.
Gold panels also comprise soffits and fascias to frame the projecting balconies.
Silver grey panels, installed to the walls behind the balconies, optimise light reflection and depth perception, with silver grey fascias to the balcony slab.
Blue grey flashings, of full elevation height, frame the recessed balcony bays.

At fourth and fifth levels light brown spandrel panels were installed within the window screens. All spandrel panels were replaced on the retained brick facade. At the upper levels, the works also included remedial treatment of the rendered elevations. At parapet level, the gold metallic ppc cappings give a very neat, sharp finish.

Following a complete facade strip back to substrate, the reinstatement required a compliant fire-rated sub grid, insulation, membranes, cavity barriers and interfaces. The key to the remediation, contracted by Vistry Special Projects Division, was full compliance with building safety regulations and resolute, tenacious attention to detail.

Photos: Ghenadie Botnari

VISTRY PARTNERSHIPS

"We've seen excellent progress at Edgar Myles House, with multiple internal and external Health & Safety audits achieving 100% or scoring just shy of it.

These results reflect consistent effort, high standards and strong culture of safety, maintained across the site.

I'd like to extend a massive thank you and well done to everyone for your continued hard work and dedication to the project.

Your commitment, attention to detail, and proactive approach to resolving issues have been outstanding.

The level of engagement and professionalism from everyone involved has truly made a difference and has not gone unnoticed.

Brilliant work from the whole team - well done!"

Ed Murray

Site Manager

Challenges

The scope was to replace non-compliant legacy cladding with fully fire-rated durable rainscreen.

The design challenge was the coordination of a variety of panel sizes with the staggered pattern, while working to very tight tolerances.

The existing cladding had already been removed and covered with Siniat board. As the Siniat board was removed, references had to be marked on the scaffold to guide the new installation. Varying site conditions had to be resolved as works progressed.

There was an issue with potential rainwater build-up.

The tight urban site had very restricted space for material storage, requiring Just-In-Time deliveries.

The remediation had to be delivered while the residents remained in occupation throughout.

The installers were working at height, with monthly Health & Safety audits by H&S consultant Havio.

Completing on time was a challenge due to delays in Italy with the ppc finish and periods of rain and high humidty affecting the render remediation.

Solutions

Aluminium cassette panels were chosen to satisfy stringent fire regulations and architectural intent.

Early engagement facilitated the detailing of the cassette panels and complex interfaces with a variety of soffits, bespoke flashings and fascias.

The design programme followed the installation sequence and phased striking of the scaffolding, allowing for close coordination and collaboration between design and site teams. Cladding alignment was adjusted to suit final tolerances on site.

Drain holes were drilled in the soffits.

Careful coordination between procurement and site teams maintained smooth progress, kept on track.

Phased scaffold drops and stringent noise mitigation measures minimised disruption to the leaseholders.

The site team achieved a 100% score twice for the Health & Safety Audit, with no incidents at all.

The issues were accommodated by A2O and Finish Facades managed the cassette ppc finish issues, so the facade was delivered on programme.

Fact File

Sector

STATUS

Value

Scope of Work

Aluminium Cassette Panels 'Elements System' with gold & silver grey metallic ppc finish
Aluminium Bracketry
Rainscreen Slab Insulation
Fire Barriers
Sheathing Board
Render system with backing boards
Spandrels panels to window bays
Galv sheeting, to roof of projecting balconies
Soffits, gold-metallic cassette panels
Cappings and facias, gold-metallic finish
Flashings, gold metallic and blue grey finishes