Westfield London, White City

CHALLENGE

Westfield, the world’s largest listed retail property company, is set to change the face of retail in the United Kingdom with the opening of its new flagship development – “Westfield London” – at White City, London.

Beneath a spectacular, undulating glass roof, the £1.6 billion Westfield London destination combines over 150,000m² of retail, restaurants, cafes, bars and leisure facilities to create the ultimate shopping and leisure destination.

Westfield London will act as a catalyst for the redevelopment and regeneration of the wider White City area with a further £1billion investment expected in the immediate vicinity over the next 10 years.

SOLUTION

Knauf Insulation supplied Rocksilk RainScreen Slab as part of the rainscreen cladding system to the external stone clad façades of the development and internal stone clad stairwell and elevator areas. The specification of Rocksilk RainScreen Slab provided both performance and installation benefits to both client and specialist installing contractor.

Rock mineral wool has a Euroclass A1 fire classification to BS EN ISO 13501- 1, the highest classification available. With rainscreen cladding incorporated into building design fire performance is particularly important and, as such, a non-combustible component such as rock mineral wool provides the ideal prevention against the spread of fire. The non combustible nature of rock mineral wool ensures that it will not burn, will not give off toxic smoke and will not suddenly ignite in a fire due to ‘flashover’.

Another key specification element related to the speed and ease of installation. The required thermal performance of the building was dependent on the correct installation of the specified insulation product. Rocksilk RainScreen Slabs are easy to install down to their superior workability ensuring installation stayed within the tight time constraints. Rocksilk RainScreen Slab is treated with a water repellent additive to ensure the building structure is protected against rain penetration and it can also be installed with either face adjacent to the sub structure.

Rocksilk RainScreen Slab provides an additional benefit for the installing contractor as it is designed to adapt to minor imperfections in the building’s substructure. The rock mineral wool product ‘knits’ together, ensuring intimate contact between slabs ensuring all joints are closed and thermal efficiency is maximised.

Rocksilk RainScreen Slab has excellent acoustic properties, which contributed towards the acoustic performance of the structure in order to comply with both sound insulation and sound absorption requirements.

What’s more, individual packs of Rocksilk RainScreen Slabs are compression packed together in Knauf Insulation’s innovative packaging method, Supakube. The advanced compression technology and strong packaging materials ensure the product is easy to transport and store, reducing environmental impact and causing minimal disruption on site and the surrounding area.