General Office, Shotton

Owner/Client: Tata Steel
Architect: Tata Steel
Cladding contractor: Lesters
Tata Steel products: Trimapanel® micro-rib insulated wall panel manufactured using Colorcoat Prisma® pre-finished steel
Colours: Seren Copper, Seren Gold, Zeus Matt
Year: 2017

The project

The General Office building at Tata Steel’s Shotton facility has been refurbished to highlight and showcase some of the colours that are available in three-layer Colorcoat Prisma®. The two-storey building was built over 70 years ago and has had a number of uses during that time. Most recently it has been used as an office. The challenge The front façade, facing the main car park was looking a little tired and aged and a recladding programme was deemed the best option.

However, due to the age of the building and some aesthetic inconsistencies, such as the irregular bays and windows, a lot of consideration was put into the refurbishment design by the project’s architect Matthew Teague. A key part of the project brief, as well as showcasing the new colours of Colorcoat Prisma®, was the requirement to complete the cladding installation within an impressive three weeks.

The solution

The refurbishment utilised vertically installed Trimapanel® micro-rib insulated panels, which were manufactured by Tata Steel on the Shotton site. Colorcoat Prisma® for the external weather face (also manufactured on the Shotton site) was laid in a random colour sequence. “Having this random three colour pattern, with no rationale, helped us break-up the façade and deflect people’s gaze away from the inconsistencies of the building,”