Kalwall has been installed to transmit high quality diffused daylight while also helping solve the issues around solar gain, privacy and security. A specialist bespoke Kalwall canopy provides protection without compromising visibility for critical operations.
The Kalwall wall elevation provides glare free diffuse daylight, avoiding hot spots and reducing the reliance on the HVAC systems to maintain the constant internal temperature required in such a facility. The cladding’s inherent strength and heavy duty impact resistance make it ideal for secure locations such as this while U-values as low as 0.28W/m2K, equivalent to a solid wall, can be achieved by including translucent silica aerogel within the panels.
The 66m long, 4m wide canopy is a bespoke solution designed to provide weather protection for forklifts operating at the loading bays. The canopy itself is supported on a steel frame extending from the side of the building. Completely mansafe to walk on, the canopy is colour stable and includes a UV resistant, self-cleaning surface. This means that normal rainfall helps to keep the surface free of dust and dirt while at the same time retaining its original colour during the weathering process.
Architect Peter Fennell commented, “The Kalwall canopy gives the weather protection we need for the forklift operators loading and unloading but avoids shadowing. So there are safety and operational benefits and as it has great spanning capability it needs less steel to support it than glass and less cleaning and maintenance.
The building has state-of-the-art capability for handling temperature sensitive medicines, vaccines etc and the diffuse light provided by Kalwall avoids hot spots at any time of day or year that could compromise that ‘cold chain’ quality assurance. I am really delighted with the amount of daylight we have got throughout the warehouse, break and build and staff accommodation spaces. It is good for the medical product but also creates an incomparable working environment for operational efficiency and quality of daily experience.
Case studies and technical information are available from Structura UK Ltd.
