Healthcare
FEATURED GLASS: COOL-LITE XTREME 50/22 II
Costing £35m to construct, The Spine, based in Paddington Village, is the first Grade-A office building in the Liverpool City Region for more than a decade.
The ceramic frit facade, complete with 23 million unique voronoi polygons that mimic human skin, wraps the building and reacts to the local environment, reducing glare and noise.
Affectionately named after the striking staircase that runs up the north elevation of the building, The Spine’s lower and upper floors will be occupied by the prestigious Royal College of Physicians, who opened their new Northern Centre of Excellence in summer 2020, with the remainder of the building available to pre-let to other health, science and education-focused occupiers.
Designing a new building is no easy task. It not only needs to be innovative, iconic and inviting but it also needs to be complementary to its occupiers and environment. That’s why, when it comes to The Spine, KQ Liverpool won’t settle for anything less than world-class. As you enter the building there’s a shared public area, complete with a living wall, café and an informal tiered events space, perfect for seminars and presentations. To connect the foyer to the dedicated exhibition space at mezzanine level, there’s access through the tiered event space.
The building benefits from many amenities, including bike storage, showers, a drying room and undercroft parking. Each of the floors, which are all c. 11,560 sq ft, has extra high ceilings, advanced air purification, district heating systems and floor-to-ceiling glazing.
The unique glazed façade is made using Saint-Gobain Glass’ COOL-LITE XTREME 50/22 II with a complex, digitally printed design to the outer pane. It provides some of the best views of the city centre and waterfront, whilst minimising overheating in sunny weather and providing thermal insulation for colder days.
The use of high performance glazing is vital to achieve the highest BREEAM and WELL Standard accreditations. It maximises the aesthetic beauty of the building whilst providing a highly, sustainable glazing solution.
Saint-Gobain Glass uses the highest level of recycled content in building glass manufacture, facilitated by Saint-Gobain’s market leading Glass Forever programme that sees millions of tonnes of end-of-life glazing recycled into new high performance building glass. Globally the business is on track to achieve net-zero carbon emissions aligned to United Nations targets.
Project stakeholders
- Architect: AHR
- Main Contractor: Morgan Sindall
- Multidisciplinary Engineering: ARUP
- Real Estate: CBRE / Frank Knight
- Façade supplier: Cristec
- Flat glass supplier: Saint-Gobain Glass
