Photo: Ben Rasmussen Photography

Blending the interior and exterior is deliberate.

Intended to echo the design of improvised field chapels still found in today’s combat zones; a reminder of courage and sacrifice dating back over 200 years.  In that sense, the building itself is about the fragility of life.  Marines may be warriors, but we are also all human.

However, the illusion of fragility is itself an illusion.  Underneath the wooden frames that appear to hold the glass in place is a hidden framework of high-tensile steel.  It’s that steel framework, coupled with optically-brilliant laminated glass that allows for the large spans of glazing to be achieved.

For more information read the Semper Fidelis article and their beautiful new chapel – architecturally stunning.

It’s the ultimate unlatched fire-resistant door system that architects and interior designers have wanted to specify for years.

The breakthrough fire door system from Wrightstyle now offers designers internationally a range of entirely new and fully-glazed interior or exterior door options that offer complete practicality coupled with absolute fire safety.

The Wrightstyle unlatched doors, in single or double leaf format, with the easy push / pull technology, are available in a wide range of surface finishes including stainless steel and with full glazing options.

The double leaf door system is also available in either rebated or un-rebated options, meaning that there does not have to be an overlap between the doors, allowing each door to be opened separately and simultaneously in either direction. Ideal for heavy traffic thoroughfares, busy corridors.

Adding further to their aesthetics and practicality, options are available for the hinges and closer mechanisms to be completely concealed within the framing system, offering a fully flush-faced door.

This entirely new concept in door fire safety significantly pushes the design envelope because, for the first time, it provides a technological solution for what has always been an interior design problem.

Until now, interior fire doors in their closed position had to be manually opened with a handle and latch, providing a less than optimal solution in a busy working environment.

The Wrightstyle system entirely does away with the need for latches because, in normal use, whether in an office or busy educational or healthcare corridor, the doors allow free passage in both directions, either swinging back automatically into the closed position, or fitted with an automated swing door operator.

However, in a fire, the unique Wrightstyle door system will automatically and securely close, providing a barrier against fire and toxic gases, fire-tested and certified up to 120 minutes, with a range of fire resistance options for insulation and integrity.

The door systems are available in a range of sizes and in either stainless steel or steel options, and can be supplied in kit form or fully fabricated for a complete design to installation service – in offices, hospitals, educational facilities, airports, or anywhere there is traffic density.

Although designed primarily for interior use, the Wrightstyle door system can also be fitted with secure deadlocks, allowing them to be used as exterior doors.

A UK specialist glass and steel glazing company has supplied advanced anti-fire systems for an iconic new sports stadium in South Africa that is hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (Please move the bar to the right to enjoy the huge new structure in Durban.)

The huge new structure in Durban, the Moses Mabhida Stadium, has a planned capacity of 70,000 – but with the potential to seat up to 84,000 spectators for major events such as the Olympics, for which South Africa is also bidding.

Wrightstyle, which supplies its systems internationally, has provided fully assembled and pre-painted screens and doorsets for the project, certified to give two hours of fire protection. The fabricator for the contact was Alustar of Durban.

Wrightstyle was chosen because the company is one of the only glass and steel specialists to have successfully tested fully-glazed fire doors for over 120 minutes of protection against fire, with the project’s safety specification requiring the highest standards of test certification.

Capital expenditure on the stadium will be close to Rand 2 billion, making it one of the most ambitious construction projects ever undertaken in South Africa.

The stadium, which opens this month (October) is set to become a world-class tourist destination, with its 106 metre high central arch accessible by a high-tech cable car designed to take visitors up to its highest point, where they can disembark and take in panoramic views of the city.

This 350 metre long free-span steel arch weighs 2,600 tons and, along with the roof, cost nearly Rand 450 million.

The stadium is intended to epitomise architectural innovation and takes its design inspiration from South Africa’s flag, with the stadium’s grand arch representing the unity of the nation. The two legs of the arch on the southern side of the stadium come together to form a single footing on the northern side, symbolising the unity of a once-divided country.

However, the arch’s primary function is to provide support for the stadium roof, which has a surface area of 46,000 square metres and will be suspended from the arch by 17,000 metres of 95mm diameter steel cables and secured around the stadium perimeter by a state-of-the-art compression ring.

Around the perimeter, 1,750 columns and 216 raking beams provide the main support and, inside the stadium, a total of 1,780 pre-cast concrete seating panels will create the spectator bowl. In total, the stadium has over 80,000 square metres of floor space.

The Durban contact underlines the international nature of Wrightstyle’s specialist product and systems ranges, with ever-increasing fire and safety specifications requiring guaranteed test compliance between both the glass and framing elements.

For example, last month, Wrightstyle supplied over 300 square metres of specialist glass, framing systems and fire-rated opening windows for the new £4.5 billion Dubai Metro, the world’s largest automated driverless train system. The Dubai project followed other recent contracts across the MENA and Asia-Pacific regions, as well as in Europe and the United States.

Wrightstyle was able to complete the Dubai contract within a month, airfreighting several tons of product from its Devizes fabrication base, because of its ability to supply both the glass and steel frames and its integrated fabrication service – substantially reducing costs and greatly improving lead times.

The Durban stadium, where construction began in 2006, will be multi-functional, able to accommodate athletics and rugby with an adjoining indoor arena, sporting museum, sports institute, railway station, and underground car parking in the immediate vicinity for 80,000 cars.

The stadium is named after Moses Mabhida, who was one of the founders of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and who also served as General Secretary of the Communist Party during the apartheid struggle.

The stadium is located in what will be one of the most remarkable sporting settings in the world, with surrounding facilities able to host up to 40 different sports, and with walkways connecting it to the city centre and to the beach, only 200 metres away.

The new structure is built on the site of the old Kings Park stadium, which also hosted international football matches, including a friendly against England in May 2003, to celebrate the international launch of South Africa’s 2010 FIFA World Cup bid.

Wrightstyle’s range of interior and exterior firescreens, doors, windows and curtain walling systems can be found at www.wrightstyle.co.uk

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Dubai Metro on Track With Wrightstyle

A UK glass and steel glazing company with a growing international reputation has supplied a range of its specialist systems for the largest infrastructure project in Dubai for more than a decade.

The £4.5bn Dubai Metro, which opened this month (September) is the world’s largest automated driverless train system, with just under 75km of magnetic track, and joins together many of the Emirate’s instantly recognisable icons, including the Burj Al Arab, Dubai’s self-styled seven-star hotel, as well as the Palm Island, and the tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai.

Wrightstyle, based in Wiltshire, supplied over 300 square metres of curtain walling, fire rated to 60 minutes of integrity and insulation, and which included both the company’s SR60 framing system and WSL F28 specialist glass. The contract also included a number of fire-rated opening windows from their 6050F1 series, and mainly intended to protect the station’s primary evacuation route.

The company was chosen for its international experience, its specialist expertise in the supply of both the glass and steel frames in one integrated, tested and guaranteed system – and its ability to meet the demands of a complex project in just over one month from the order being placed.

The systems were all supplied into the Rashidiya Main Depot, the starting station of one of the Metro’s two lines, capable of handling 22,000 passengers an hour, and able to accommodate 64 trains for cleaning and maintenance. The Depot also includes the system’s operations and emergency response centre, all managed through 668 military personnel, 3,000 surveillance cameras, two police stations, and eight security offices.

The interior of each of the system’s 47 stations all feature themes adopted from the four elements of nature: water, air, fire and earth. The design of the exterior of the elevated stations is a unique shell-shaped roof which invokes the heritage of pearl diving – an integral part of Dubai’s history.

The theme of water and air is carried through into the interior design of the trains, each of which has five compartments and three classes – Golden Class with leather seating, Women and Children’s Class, and Silver Class.

The Wrightstyle systems were all designed and fabricated at the company’s Devizes base and supplied fully finished to the main contractor, JTMJV (Japan Turkey Metro Joint Venture), that employed a local fixing company, approved by Wrightstyle, to handle installation.

The contract timetable meant that design, manufacture, paint and packing had to be completed within four weeks of the order being placed. This necessitated Wrightstyle having to airfreight four tonnes of framing and nine tonnes of glass, with the balance following by seafreight.

The new Metro system comes in response to the Emirate’s huge growth. From a population size of 183,000 in 1970, Dubai now has a population of 1.1 million, still growing at 6.4% per year, and set to reach three million by 2017.

The city also boasts the world’s largest shopping mall, the first underwater hotel and the longest indoor ski slope. Not forgetting Space Adventures, in neighbouring Ras Al-Khaimah, that will soon be offering suborbital spaceflights.

There is also a $4.5 billion new airport; more than 60 residential towers at the Dubai Marina; the Dubai International Financial Centre, bigger than London’s Canary Wharf; Dubai International City; Dubai Healthcare City; Dubai Festival City; and the $5 billion Dubailand theme park, a desert Disneyland. Dubailand alone consists of 45 main building projects and 200 smaller building projects.

In keeping with the scale of growth, fire safety in the UAE has also improved. The first indication came with the establishment last year of a centre of excellence for fire safety testing and product approval, in a joint venture between Bodycote Warringtonfire and the Dubai Civil Defence (DCD) authority.

That has led to a sea-change in both enforcement attitudes and how products and systems are being specified and test certificates ratified. Until recently, most projects had to comply with integrity-only specifications. Now, a growing number of specifiers are requesting project-by-project fire test certification for both integrity and insulation – as was the case for the Dubai Metro contract.

Wrightstyle’s range of interior and exterior firescreens, doors, windows and curtain glazing systems can be found at www.wrightstyle.co.uk

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Wright Style Limited – Press Announcement

Bomb Blast Curtain Walling – Update

Wrightstyle have pushed the boundaries of their blast resistant curtain walling system to new levels, during two research tests with the Defence, Science & Technology Laboratories (DSTL) – the research arm of the UK MoD and other government agencies. During these tests they exposed two different assemblies to close proximity detonations (8 metres and 10 metres) of 50kg military grade high-explosive.

These successful tests allows Wrightstyle to further emphasize their ‘no-compromise’ approach in security glazing, by offering a narrow 60mm sightline, structurally glazed, large span façade system that is able to meet levels of protection previously limited to small areas of glazing.

If you want to increase the design opportunities of your next project, yet still remain within the certification system, then contact Wrightstyle.

Photographs depict the installation of structural glazed bomb resistant roof glazing, sloped glazing and skylights recently completed in Hong Kong.

Wrightstyle Limited – Press Announcement

Edge to Edge Fire Resistant Glass

Wrightstyle have added to their range of fire resistant WSL F Glass. The new range is for glass-to-glass frameless jointedglazing and is fully certified to integrity and insulation applications.

The WSL F edge to edge glass has time-spans ranging from 30/30 minutes up-to 120/120 minutes. This range now gives the architect / designer complete design flexibility in fire resistant glazing – offering clear, flush lines of vision.

Along with this Wrightstyle can also offer their UV stable range of WSL F Glass in DGU format. This allows the use of any external architectural glass – solar control, reflective, patterned, tinted, etc. – just imagine the fabulous design opportunities this creates.

Click to open Product Data Sheet – WSL F31GG

Advanced steel glazing systems from Wrightstyle, the Devizes-based steel and fire resistant glass specialist, have been incorporated into a range of large span, fire resistant and blast protection systems, now being launched in North America and Canada.

The partnership with Hope’s Windows, the USA’s pre-eminent manufacturer of custom steel windows, steel doors, security windows, and fire-resistant curtain walling, is a significant endorsement of the UK company’s long term research and design developments.

The glazing systems are being marketed by Hope’s Windows, as the 7000 Series thermal break and fire resistant curtain wall and roof systems, and are also incorporated into the Liberty500 blast resistant system. -one of the most advanced systems in the world.

Hope’s Windows’s, founded in 1912 with headquarters in New York State, has representation throughout the United States, and also regularly supplies its residential, commercial and institutional systems into Canada.

The Wrightstyle / Hope’s Windows partnership, follows a series of successful joint fire tests, with Intertek Testing Services in Madison, Wisconsin, to add US fire test compliance for 60 min curtain wall, 120 min curtain wall, and 2 hour low temperature rise single and double doors, and compliment Wrightstyle’s other international test certifications.

The addition of US test certification, was not only a vital component in the partnership with Hope’s Windows, but reflects the increasing globalisation of the specialist glass and glazing market, as specifications for fire and bomb resistant glazing, become more widely common in North America.

You can visit Hope’s Windows at www.hopeswindows.com

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Wrightstyle Appoints Asia-Pacific Sales Agent
Wrightstyle Ltd, the UK supplier of specialist glass and glazing systems, has appointed a Hong Kong-based sales agent for the Asia-Pacific region.

The company has appointed Billy Kung, who joined Wrightstyle in February 2008.

“Billy is highly respected in the building sector, and brings with him a wealth of knowledge and expertise,” said Denis Wright, managing director. “This is an extremely important appointment for us and underlines our commitment to the Asia-Pacific market.”

With nearly 20 years of business experience, Billy Kung has been involved in many of Hong Kong’s most prestigious building projects, including airport and railway development, commercial, retail and leisure facilities, as well as banks, hotels, hospitals, and sensitive government contracts.

A chemical engineer by training, Billy has also worked with or represented a range of international companies, including Otis Elevators, Ingersoll Rand Security & Safety and John Planck Limited.

“Wrightstyle is a world-class company with a range of systems that are uniquely suited to the Asia-Pacific region,” said Billy Kung. “Wrightstyle systems not only protect against fire or terrorist attack but, even with large glass spans, are able to meet high wind load criteria.”

Underlining its approach to international and local markets, Wrightstyle’s range of integrated glass and steel framing systems have dual European and US fire test accreditation. The company has also carried out specific tests in Hong Kong for fire glass accreditation of between 30 and 90 minutes integrity and insulation.

The Hong Kong fire test was in support of a contract named Education Resource Centre in Kowloon Tong near the Kowloon Tong MTRC station to supply glass and glazing systems for the Architectural Services Department (ASD) of the Hong Kong government, involving some 1,000 sq metres of glass with either 30 minutes or 60 minutes of integrity and insulation.

Wrightstyle also recently supplied over 500 square metres of specialist curtain walling for the HK $3.1 billion Langham Place development. The 1.8 million sq ft development required a glazing system that could meet stringent fire safety specifications – including British Standards (BS) for fire resistance, American (ASTM) for mechanical strength and German (DIN) standards for material qualities.

“We have an unrivalled range of glass and glazing systems and are increasingly being specified in the region. Billy’s appointment will further allow us to consolidate our marketing and sales and grow our business further,” said Denis Wright.

Wrightstyle steel glazing systems are available through a global network of licensed fabricators. You can visit the company at www.wrightstyle.co.uk or contact them by email at infowrightstylecouk

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One of the country’s leading technology colleges has reopened following a £28.5 million project that utilised specialist glazing systems to create a stunning new approach to the school environment.

Leigh Technology Academy in Dartford, Kent, which first opened in 1990, is rated academically as one of highest-achieving schools in England and Wales, with a school roll of over 1200 pupils – a flagship establishment that is pioneering new ways of learning in business, sport and science.

Underlying that difference in teaching approach, glass and glazing systems were used within the building to form transparent linkages between classrooms and common areas, and between exterior and interior spaces.

The project, to build four three-storey colleges and a sports hall, with an indoor garden and large exterior glass frontage, was designed to allow light to flood through the building, and provide large and inspirational places for learning – a radically different approach to traditional educational architecture, which separates and segments classroom areas.

“The design was exceptionally challenging. I think one of the most important and difficult aspects of this project were the number of fire rated and non fire rated screens, all interfacing at the same point from different angles and different planes. This really highlights the versatility of both the system and the fabricator APiC UK Limited,” said Lee Coates, Technical Director of Wrightstyle. “It was a project for which we supplied glass and glazing systems – a complete solution that this project absolutely required. By supplying both the glass and the framing systems, and working closely with our fabricator, we were able to contribute towards solving the design challenges and help guarantee the finished systems,” he said.

To achieve its aim of creating a transparent and inspirational interior space, the BDP-designed building makes extensive use of large-span glazing, with curved interior screens offering stunning vistas through the building.

Wrightstyle supplied its SR curtain walling system, with protection from 30 to 60 minutes of integrity and insulation.

The system seamlessly blended fire-rated elements with the exterior non-fire protected envelope; also achieving advanced acoustic requirements.

The company also supplied their 6050 F1 Series doors and screens, to comply with the fire evacuation strategy of the building, which includes two lift shafts in the winter garden area.

A complete glass and glazing solution.

The screens, doors and curtain walling were fabricated by West Bromwich based APiC UK Limited, whose unrivalled expertise in the design and fabrication of glazing systems, meant they were ideal for this complex and challenging project.

WRIGHTSTYLE LTD HAS JUST MADE THE STEEL DOOR FABRICATION BUSINESS A WHOLE LOT SIMPLER
The Problem
If you are a fabricator or supplier of glazed steel doors do you have difficulty with these operations?

•Cutting mitres and material to length
•Notching for bottom & mid-rails
•Preparations for locks & keeps
•preparations for flush bolts & cylinders
•Preparations for hinges and special furniture

The Answer
Let Wrightstyle supply you with kit form doors and frames

•Complete and fully fitted on our CNC equipment
•Fully prepared for furniture, which is supplied loose
•Bead studs fitted to suit the glass thickness
•Beads cut oversize for trimming after fabrication
•Fire resistant glass supplied loose

All you have to do

•Supply us with the manufacturing dimensions
•Weld the door and frame together
•Powder coat
•Fit the furniture and glaze
•Install on site
•Invoice your customer

Now what could be easier?