Air Ambulance HQ
After 15 years working out of two separate locations in Swansea, Wales Air Ambulance now have their own, purpose-built headquarters, bringing their fundraising and helicopter staff together at one site for the first time. The project was fast-tracked and completed in 12 months, with local aluminium fabricators and installers Atcost Windows winning the contract to supply and fit all of the glazing products throughout the building with the help of trusted supplier, Kestrel Aluminium Systems.
Partner
Systems
60mm Window System
Commercial Door System
Thermal Framing
Meeting the specification
The client chose a bold design for the new headquarters. This required Atcost Windows to supply a glazing system that offered both thermal efficiency and a range of colour and design options. Kestrel Aluminium Systems were their first-choice supplier for this project. To meet this brief, the Kestrel team specified the use of their curtain walling, their 60 mm window, their thermal framing system and their thermal commercial door.
The curtain walling allows screens of up to 20 m wide to be built on site and easily installed. Both the 100 mm and 125 mm curtain walling profiles were selected to create the impressive frontage on the purpose-built headquarters, and to glaze the common areas and meeting rooms, maximising the use of natural light in the building.
Air Ambulance HQ
As the Air Ambulance headquarters is a public building, it was important that the products installed were Approved Document L compliant. To fulfil these thermal efficiency requirements, Atcost Windows installed the Kestrel 60 mm window, thermal framing and thermal commercial door systems. U values as low as 1.8 W/m2K are achieved for the commercial door system and as low as 1.6 W/m2K for the window. In additional to excellent thermal performance, these products also provide a consistent design thanks to the use of the same bead across all systems.
Utilising the thermal ramp threshold on the entrance doors ensured the doors were DDA compliant as well as being thermally efficient. The Kestrel thermal commercial door has also been rigorously tested to meet the PAS24 security standard, which was another key specification of the project.
A partnership for success
Kestrel Aluminium Systems offered a complete design service for the project, working closely with the architect, contractor and manufacturer to achieve the most efficient and cost-effective design. The twelve-month deadline for completion of the project meant that time constraints were also a challenge. However, Kestrel was able to offer a faster turnaround time for powder coated materials than most of our competitors, typically supplying painted profiles within 5 working days. This allowed for quick manufacturing and installation, enabling all project milestones to be met on time.