National Centre for Popular Music

Street CraneXpressLtd played an instrumental role in the construction of Sheffield’s futuristic visitor centre, ‘The National Centre For Popular Music’, designed by visionary architect Nigel Coates.

Each of the four drums, which make up the venue’s architectural structure, are clad with stainless steel and fitted with a rotating roof cowl.

This pioneering feat of engineering is the first of its kind in the World and was designed, manufactured and installed by SCX.

Although the rotating roof sections of each steel drum stand approximately 4m high, span 13.5m in diameter and weigh nearly 10 tonnes, they can be smoothly, silently and precisely rotated - independently and in any direction.

Far from being just a novelty architectural feature, the rotating roof cowls have a much more practical function.

At the centre of each roof cowl is a wind funnel. Using sophisticated control devices, all four wind funnels are kept in perfect alignment with each other, facing in the opposing direction of the wind.

The wind is then funnelled down into the building to create an energy efficient system of air ventilation.