Sureclad provides retail therapy at Trinity Walk
Sureclad ceramic granite ventilated cladding supplied by Shackerley is one of the most prominent external wall finishes installed throughout Trinity Walk, a new and vibrant 46,450m2 shopping centre in the City of Wakefield.
At the outset of this major regeneration project DLA, the masterplanners behind the development, specified Shackerley’s ceramic granite facade cladding for exterior elevations at the perimeter of the centre and for many of the store and cafe frontages within the mall.
When the development was acquired by a consortium comprising Sovereign Land, Shepherd Construction and AREA Property Partners, Leslie Jones Architecture was brought on board to enhance the scheme for the new owners and WT Partnership was appointed to project manage the development.
Looking afresh at the plans, the new architects decided that the overall design scheme needed to be ‘warmed up’. Lee Pope, project architect said, “The original scheme specified ceramic granite panels in Arctic White which we thought was a stylish choice but a little too ‘cold’ for this development. We were very happy with DLA’s choice of material as ceramic granite is a high quality cladding option but we thought that we could create a more welcoming atmosphere by bringing in warmer neutrals to better reflect Wakefield’s urban landscape.
“We found the colours we were looking for– creamy beige, light grey, copper brown and charcoal – in the Sureclad ceramic granite collection and have used contrasting panels to create ‘picture frame’ effects around store frontages and signage zones and to add visual interest to plain elevations. All the ceramic granite colours we’ve selected complement the other facade finishes employed in the centre, such as extruded terracotta and metallic panelling. As envisaged, the new colour palette has helped Trinity Walk to blend seamlessly into its city centre location.”
All Shackerley’s facades were installed by national roofing and cladding specialist contractor, Roofdec, based in Rotherham. Director Norman Clarry said: “We’ve installed Sureclad facades before on projects in the education sector and know the system to be straightforward to install and very versatile. This was critical at Trinity Walk where we had a very tight schedule to adhere to, and a lot of interfaces between the ceramic granite facades and other cladding systems and materials to deal with.”
“Everything was prefabricated off-site by Shackerley and delivered to site ‘installation-ready’ according to our priorities. By working closely together we managed to meet our deadlines and the project was handed over on schedule.”
Now open to the public, Trinity Walk comprises 50 modern retail units and has attracted Debenhams, Next, Sainsbury's, Asda Living, Argos and a host of top fashion and accessory retailers, cafes and restaurants as tenants. It is one of only three shopping centres opening in the UK this year and the only one in the North of England. Wakefield Council has described it as the most important City Centre development for more than 20 years.
