Baker Street Access

Integral Cradles Ltd have secured yet another unique façade access challenge.

One of the largest buildings on Baker Street is to undergo an extraordinary transformation. The elaborate redesign for the 138m stretch of offices will make it one of the most prominent buildings on one of London’s most famous streets.

Architects MAKE have redesigned 55 Baker Street in order to expand the usable space inside the offices to their full potential, but by far the most obvious, and outstanding, part of the project is the dramatically angled glass-paneled front façade. This paneling is part of a unique design to draw natural light deep into the heart of the building.

For this concept to continue to shine to its full potential, the glass panels will need to be cleaned and maintained, yet such a unique construction cannot be accessed by standard façade access equipment. Due to Integral Cradles’ experience with unusual bespoke maintenance access equipment, they have been given the responsibility of finding an access solution for the dramatic front façade of the building.

Integral Cradles’ answer to this problem is to provide two track mounted building maintenance units with an individual reach of 26m, in order to reach out over the angled planes of the building. The cradle buffering on each machine will be a bespoke designed and tested system to ensure that the minimum amount of pressure is applied to the exposed glass mask areas at the front of the build facade. In order to ensure that the cradle will not damage the glazed cladding in unexpected gusts of wind, the buffering pads have been conclusively tested by calculation and mock ups.

As well as this complex design for the front façade, Integral Cradles are also supplying a powered cradle and monorail access system to access the area behind the front mask, to complete the total access solution for the entire building.

This project has not only provided another exciting challenge for Integral Cradles, but will also mean that the designs and technology developed can be used to enrich future projects involving glazed facades.

This project comes as a continuation of the good working relationship we have with HBG Construction following the successful completion of the National Centre for Popular Music.

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