Safety first - Auckland Art Gallery's glass balustrades and stainless steel work manufactured by Designer Stainless Steel NZ Ltd

Meeting both the practical specifications of local building codes and the aesthetic requirements of the project architects can be a challenging undertaking.

All glass balustrades and stainless steel architectural work such as handrails and fixing channels at the Art Gallery were manufactured and installed by Designer Stainless NZ Ltd. Because this public building experiences high levels of foot traffic, handrails and balustrades had to meet high Building Code crowd loadings. At the same time, the architect wanted to create a minimalist appearance, with expansive sections of glass and the least possible number of visible fixings.

To achieve this, Designer Stainless carried out a large amount of in-house testing and drew on outsourced test results to identify glass strengths accurately. With this research, the company was able to specify glass of the correct thickness to support the required crowd loadings. Director Michael Crawley says sheets of cantilevered glass normally require a large number of fixing points, but as a result of the research, his team was able to find a solution that allowed only two patch fittings to be applied to each 3m-long section of glass on the bridge linking the heritage and new areas of the gallery.

Designer Stainless also manufactured and installed 130m of cantilevered glass and stainless fixing channels in the Eastern Sculpture terrace. Here, extra-tough duplex stainless steel was used to achieve the strength required by the Building Code.

DESIGNER STAINLESS NZ LTD

PO Box 36544, Northcote, Auckland 0748 Phone (09) 482 1316 Fax (09) 482 316www.designerstainless.co.nz m.crawley@designerstainless.co.nz

Story by: Trendsideas