Project Spotlight -
Shackerley's Contribution to Liverpool Central Library is Written in Stone
Shackerley has supplied two of the most visible new external architectural elements at Liverpool Central Library, following a £50m project to transform the facility into a state-of-the-art civic centre. Behind the retained Grade II listed Victorian frontage is a stunning new five-storey library and archive repository building, the external elevations of which have been predominantly clad with Shackerley’s Sureclad® ceramic granite ventilated facade system. The new facades have a distinctive style, featuring randomly positioned panels of varying widths in a palette of carefully selected natural tones.
In addition to supplying 2200m² of prefabricated 'installation-ready' ceramic granite cladding, Shackerley also utilised specialist in-house facilities at its ISO 9001 accredited Lancashire factory to create the Library's 20m high 'Literary Wall' – a gleaming black roll-call of famous authors, playwrights and poets associated with Liverpool, engraved with gold lettering on large format solid granite panels, cut to bespoke sizes measuring up to 2800 x 600 x 30mm.
Architect Ben Aston of Austin-Smith: Lord commented: "Shackerley offers ceramic granite in an extensive range of colours and finishes, from which we selected our tonal palette of neutral colours with a natural unpolished finish. The flexibility of the Sureclad® system allowed panels of different sizes to be used, achieving the non-monolithic appearance required."
"For the Literary Wall, we wanted a high quality polished black stone that would retain its good looks in all weathers. Granite is by no means an easy material to work with, but Shackerley had the specialist in-house cutting, drilling and engraving facilities to supply everything we needed."
