Project spotlight – Hilton Garden Inn, Silverstone
The Hilton Garden Inn at Silverstone was a real highlight for Jo Foulkes, Commercial Operations Manager for Kingfisher Louvres. Here we ask Jo a few questions about it:
Why is this project a highlight for you?
Silverstone is such a huge part of Motorsport history, and it was great to be involved in such an iconic project.
Tell us more about the project?
This £30m hotel development was for a six-storey hotel with 197 rooms situated on the Hamilton Straight at Silverstone. The development included hospitality suites, restaurants, track-side rooms with balconies, a rooftop fitness suite and a roof terrace for track-side viewing. The rooftop facilities meant that the plant equipment was housed on the ground floor, and this is where Kingfisher’s louvres were used for weather protection, ventilation and screening.
What type of louvres were used and why?
Kingfisher supplied Metclad Contracts with 1800m of KW75Z single bank louvre blades, 170 mullions and 5 double door sets, all powder coated to RAL 7047 matt. The KW75Z louvre is the Kingfisher mid-range system providing a good level of weather protection and ventilation with a 58% free area.
When were these installed?
Early 2022, after a very long tender and design process!
What is it that you particularly enjoyed about working on this project?
This project posed a great challenge that Metclad really rose to! There were a number of parallelogram-shaped louvres on this build and there was a lot of work that went into the design and scheduling in order to make this a smooth install for Metclad once the goods had arrived on site.
Were there any challenges?
As touched on earlier, the raked edges of the parallelogram shaped louvres had to be carefully designed, with bespoke sized blades and mullions to create the overall shape required without the need for cutting on site. I worked closely with Metclad, particularly Josh Gardner and Christopher Buxton, to ensure the supply was exactly as required. Looking back at the photos of this project makes me feel very proud to see the products in situ.
Installation images courtesy of Metclad Contracts