Gatwick Road Car Showroom

According to Hamiltons the intention of the design was to find an ‘elegance within simplicity’ suitable for a high quality car showroom.  To achieve that aim the architects specified extensive curtain wall glazing and the Stratascreen metal rainscreen system in Colorcoat Prisma® from Corus.  This design insured excellent visual connections between inside and outside, creating an inviting atmosphere for visitors and passers-by.  The restrained clear-cut design of the building also took the building well away from the common perception of ‘industrial building as tin shed’.  It provides in its deployment of space a well-interpreted outlet for the high end products of the car industry.

This contract involved the development of the existing site including the partial retention of existing structures to provide one unit to accommodate two car dealerships, including servicing, workshop, maintenance and preparation areas with associated access, landscape and boundary treatment.

According to Gale Construction, the cladding sub-contractor, the project involved the stripping and re-sheeting of over 3,000m2 using Corus Trisomet in Corus Colorcoat HPS200® Goosewing Grey on the roof and 1,500m2 of Stratascreen rainscreen panels in Colorcoat Prisma® on the walls.  Corus Trisomet composite panel is a composite roof and wall system which provides fast track insulated construction, ideal for this application.
The completed building is a superb example of modern urban regeneration.  The building’s clean rectilinear exterior belies its complexity and the skills involved in over-cladding an existing building.  Gale construction offered a full surveying, design and management service.  “It was the package we offered that enabled the project to run smoothly and on schedule.  It is a project with which we are immensely proud and which we believe does much to enhance the built environment of Crawley.”

The Steel Construction Institute (SCI) which is co-ordinating a European-funded project, Renovation of Buildings using Steel Technologies (ROBUST) sees this kind of project as an important way of reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions and improving the quality of the built environment.  Whole building energy models have been used to assess the economics of over-cladding by reducing the U-value of the existing building façade.  The payback period depends on the ‘mix’ of energy supply. 

Building 1 Gatwick Road is situated centrally in this site, surrounded by car parking.  There is a service area within the building to the rear and the car showroom is at the front of the building fronting Gatwick Road.