2020-06-09

ALUPROF FAÇADES. MODERNITY, DURABILITY AND AESTHETICS

High-rise glass and aluminium façades have become an inseparable part of Europe’s cityscapes. One of the leading manufacturers supplying systems for creating the most technologically advanced buildings is ALUPROF S.A. This Polish company’s product range meets all the requirements for energy-saving and passive construction and its wide selection of façade profiles is a response to the market’s growing demand.

Contemporary skyscraper façades are extraordinary curtain walls made using aluminium profiles systems which make it possible to construct glass elevations for public buildings and airy, glazed roofs that provide users with comfort and an unbeatable atmosphere. These systems are also being employed more and more often for single family homes.

Mullion and transom façades

The freedom of design afforded by aluminium and glass façades makes it possible to bring bold architectural visions to life. Mullion and transom façades are particularly popular. This kind of elevation is constructed from lightweight curtain walls of special aluminium profiles and glass. They have a high thermal insulation coefficient, which minimises heat loss, and high watertightness, wind load resistance and impact resistance parameters. Their excellent acoustic insulation properties make them ideal for busy city centres.

One of ALUPROF’s most technologically advanced mullion and transom façade systems is the MB-TT50. The company took an innovative approach not only to the structure of the profiles and accessories responsible for airtightness, watertightness and thermal insulation, but also to the assembly technology. The soundness of this thinking is borne out by the buildings where the MB-TT50 has been used. Here, it suffices to take the example of the Alchemia in Gdańsk, a prestigious office complex which has received the highest LEED classification; Platinum.

The ALUPROF MB-TT50 and MB-SR50N HI+ mullion and transom façade systems are two of the few in the world to hold top-grade, A+ PHI Darmstadt certificates, which explains why they are recommended for the construction of large-scale, glazed elevations for energy-saving and passive buildings. They are part of the breathtaking façades of the Apex hotel and residential complex in London’s Ealing district, the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, on Poland’s Baltic coast, and the Brama Miasta office building in the central Polish city of Łódź.

Unlimited design potential

Today’s solutions allow architects to design boldly and with panache. The most highly regarded architectural practices in Poland and around the world root the construction of their buildings’ façades on ALUPROF systems. The comprehensive nature of those solutions and the company’s readiness to adapt its products to its clients’ expectations drive its growth and steadily open up new design possibilities.

One of the many innovations developed by ALUPROF’s team of experts is the way the mullions and transoms are joined in the MB-SR50N façade, which is distinctive for its high load-bearing capacity of up to 1100 kilos per transom. The potential for creating zigzag, recessed and other similar types of walls with modules connected at the sides at an angle of up to ± 7,5° is another important function, as is the possibility of building a façade with a ± 10° deviation from the perpendicular.

The latest solution from ALUPROF is the MB-SR60N façade. The system began life as a series of custom-designed answers to some of the most demanding projects of the moment, such as the Mennica Legacy Tower in Warsaw, which saw the ALUPROF MB-SR60N MLT used for the first time and 61 Ninth Avenue in New York, where the MB-SR60NY made its premiere. The MB-SR60N facade system makes it possible to endow buildings with fantastical forms featuring the extensive glazing which is very much on trend at present. The infill assembly is based on attaching the glass to the aluminium construction. The MB-SR60N HI version features increased thermal insulation.

There is also the MB-SR60N EFEKT. Thanks to its system for attaching the glass to the mullions and transoms, the EFEKT version makes it possible to obtain a smooth, uniform image of a glass wall divided by a structure of twenty-four-millimetre-wide perpendicular and horizontal lines filled in with a special binder. Façades created using this technique can be seen adorning the .KTW office building in the southern Polish city of Katowice, the Wroclavia shopping and entertainment centre in Wrocław, a regional capital in south-west Poland and the Hilton hotel in Kiev, to name but three.

Alternative types of façade

Unitised façade systems are steadily gaining in popularity. They are designed for individual buildings where rapid assembly and dispensing with external scaffolding are crucial considerations. Indeed, this is sometimes the only option for construction work in teeming city centres and on high buildings.

ALUPROF offers several unitised façade systems, ranging from the MB-SE80 and MB-SE85 to the MB-SE155. They are composed of prefabricated segments which are attached to a building’s load-bearing structure and joined together. ALUPROF façades of this kind have been used in a number of prestigious projects. The Mennica Legacy Tower in Warsaw features the MB-SE80MLT, for instance. Other examples include the Long Island City Marriot, where the MB-SE80 SG was used, and the second largest residential building on Manhattan, 125 Greenwich Street, with the MB-SE98SG façade system.

Another façade variant is the ALUPROF MB-SR50N A overlapping system. Here, the aluminium profile is attached to a wooden or steel one by means of connectors. It is suitable for vertical constructions and glazed roofs, which means that its advantages have been put to good use in all sorts of public buildings in Poland, including shopping and entertainment centres like the Kaskada in the north-western city of Szczecin and the Malta in Poznań, in the west central region, not to mention railway stations such as Wrocław Główny (Wrocław Central) and Łódź Fabryczna.

Safe and aesthetic façades

ALUPROF’s aluminium façade systems can also function as a barrier against the spread of smoke and fire. The company’s MB-SR50N EI and MB-SR50N EI EFEKT mullion and transom façades are designed for creating lightweight, fire-resistant curtain walls. In visual terms, there is no difference between these solutions and the standard MB-SR50N façades and they cause no disruption to a building’s smooth, glazed design.

The MB-SR50N EI and MB-SR50N EI EFEKT are available in fire-resistance classifications ranging from EI 30 to EI 60 and they can be employed to create fire compartments in a building. Used in conjunction with ALUPROF’s fire-resistant doors, such as the MB-78EI, for instance, they will provide appropriate emergency exit routes. They can be seen in all kinds of buildings, including the Green2Day retail and office building in Wrocław, which won the 2018 Building of the Year Featuring ALUPROF Systems award.