Farnborough Airport

CHALLENGE

The transformation of Farnborough airport was a £45m development by TAG Aviation who were determined to establish Farnborough as the UK’s leading airport for business aviation. Decisions were made to depart from the traditional box shaped design whilst still providing a space large enough to house 6 Boeing business jets or Airbus corporate jets.

The proposed design included a sweeping Kalzip roof spanning each of the 3 connected bays of the building which is 290 metres long, 45 metres deep and 22 metres high at the apex of each bay.

The nature of the design had to ensure the building would be free from corrosion, had excellent acoustic properties due to the high level of anticipated noise within the development and would perform thermally too.

SOLUTION

More than 1,350m² of Knauf Insulation’s Kalzip roll was used in the curvaceous roof – the naturally curved sheets being roll-formed on site to give a continuous 45m sheet length across each bay. Kalzip Roll was also used on the roof of the air traffic control tower and in the 4,000m² terminal building which also accommodates TAG’s corporate offices.

Kalzip Roll is a flexible, lightweight and resilient glass mineral wool insulation which is used within the Corus Kalzip system to produce award-winning architectural designs and provides solutions for the entire external envelope of the building including roof, walls, ventilation systems, solar shading and all essential fabricated components. Knauf Insulation is the only manufacturer to produce Kalzip Roll insulation for Kalzip’s innovative aluminium roof and wall cladding system which can be precisely engineered to meet the complex and rigorous requirements of the most challenging buildings. This is particularly important where concerns may include corrosion, noise absorption, thermal performance or condensation control.

To achieve similar results with other twin skin profiled metal cladding systems and standing seam roofs, Knauf Insulation’s Crown FactoryClad can be used for the thermal and acoustic insulation of roofs and walls. Crown FactoryClad is manufactured 1200mm wide to suit commonly used rail and bracket systems and in long lengths with the same properties as Kalzip Roll.