Aliva UK has honed an edgy finish on a new community building that is already a landmark structure in the massive regeneration of East London’s Rathbone Market area.
Aliva, the UK leader in façades and interior finishes, met architect CZWG’s brief for a crisp look to complement other finishes on the project – delivering black polished ceramic granite for the London Borough of Newham’s new community building fronting Rathbone Market Square. The building makes a striking addition to a new public square in the £25m second phase of the project, where the main contractor is Sisk.
With new private and affordable residential units, shops, cafes and other community uses, the Canning Town development will continue to host one of the East End’s oldest surviving street markets, dating back to the 13th century. The community building faces on to the Market Square, which has room for up to 60 stalls for local traders.
Aliva also provided a full design service for the façade system, including the backing structure. Aliva’s sub-grid consisted of extruded elements, and the horizontal carrier rail was finished in black polyester powder coating. The cladding tiles were braced and joined with hidden bracketry to meet the architect’s brief for precise, sharp angles into the large windows.
CZWG partner Adam West said: “The community building, fronting on to the square really stands out with its honed black granite cladding.
“Aliva helped us achieve the effect we wanted by providing a thin, inherently strong material that enabled us to maintain the crisp geometries of the development. We were particularly pleased with the way Aliva considered the technical requirements for the cladding early on in the project.
“Another challenge was to incorporate the vertical stainless steel ‘pinstripes’ which add emphasis to the main façade and provide an additional lighting feature. The construction contractor HA Marks did a fine job on detailing the facades.”
Aliva managing director James Ormerod said: “We were proud to use the full range of the Aliva design team’s talents on this important building in Rathbone Market’s regeneration. Our expert knowledge and experience of providing end-to-end solutions from cladding materials to backing structures ensured we helped CZWG achieve a seamless, stunning finish.”
