UK public emergency services building

Project description

Birkdale fibre cement slates was chosen as the perfect answer to fulfil part of a complex and challenging rainscreen design. The new single storey training centre, consists of a fully grassed roof with ‘basket weave’ Birkdale slates used as a form of a raked rainscreen cladding to elevate the building. Architect Rob Martin commented “The fact that the building sits in a greenfield site meant that the choice of materials was critical in enabling the scheme to appropriately respond to its context. We had to find a solution which would also respond to the surrounding urban environment and would naturally ‘bed’ into the landscape. The familiarity of the traditional slate look of the tile helps the building settle well into its surrounding urban environment whilst the green tile and the use of the zoomorphic basket weave creates a softer ‘naturalistic’ feel which we felt lent itself to the grassy site in which it lays. The naturalisation of the building is completed with the introduction of the grass roof which due to its sunken position can be visible from the nearby roadside.”