Issue 45 Feb 25 web - Flipbook - Page 42
Steel windows meet
aesthetic aspirations at
St Albans Cathedral
Sympathetically connecting the grade I listed cathedral building to its 1980s chapter house, the new
welcome centre at St Albans Cathedral provides a visitor entrance, retail space, interpretation and
exhibition areas and other facilities. The architecture is respectfully understated with steel windows by
Steel Window Association member, Steel Window Services and Supplies helping to achieve the overall
aesthetic.
The context of the historic Norman cathedral site
demanded careful consideration of the materials palette.
The existing cathedral and chapter house buildings feature metal-framed and leaded windows. It was felt that
the new welcome centre extension should complement
the existing fabric yet be easily recognisable as a modern
intervention.
powder coating in RAL 7016, anthracite grey.
Steel windows are a characteristic feature of many early20th Century houses and many are still giving as good a
service as the day they were installed.
Today, despite the arrival of new materials, steel windows
still offer excellent performance and value, while inherent
strength means that they are secure and vandal resistant.
The new extension is low-slung so as not to compete with
the massing of the cathedral building. An important feature of the front facade is a triptych of vertical steel windows which, at over 2.5m high, are mirrored on the
opposite side of the building.
For the past 60 years it has been standard practice for all
steel windows to be fully galvanized. They do not rust;
and with modern factory-applied polyester powder coatings, neither do they need re-painting for at least 20 years.
Perimeter roof glazing provides a light touch connection
between new and old while giving an airy feel to the internal spaces. To achieve this, Steel Window Services and
Supplies provided a high-level window of 12 sections
measuring some 14m wide and 670mm high and another
of four sections measuring over 3m wide and 935mm
high.
One of the enduring attractions of steel windows, for
homeowners as well as designers, is their visual appeal.
Their slender sight-lines and elegant frame details enhance the appearance of many new buildings and are considered essential to preserve the appearance of classic
1930s architecture.
These key design features are still retained, even when
the windows are glazed with modern energy-efficient
sealed units. In fact, steel windows can achieve up to 1.5
W/m2K 'U' values using W40 steel profiles with tripleglazed units; W30 window profiles with double-glazed
In all, eight W40 composite windows and one W20 standard metal window were supplied, with installation on site
taking around two weeks. All the windows were hot
dipped galvanised and finished with a factory applied
i
i
Conservation & Heritage Journal
40
