Project Spotlight -
Shackerley's ceramic granite enhances Kingston hotel and housing development
Shackerley's Sureclad® ceramic granite cladding system has enhanced and unified the appearance of a visionary development scheme comprising two very different award-winning buildings on the banks of the River Thames in Kingston.
An attractive combination of ceramic granite façade panels, manufactured to give the appearance of natural oak and limestone, has been used to clad the exteriors of Kingston Heights - a mixed-use development incorporating a hotel and 137 private and affordable homes - and an adjacent luxury apartment complex, Kingston Riverside.
The cladding for both buildings was specified by NHP Leisure Developments who acquired the site fifteen years ago and drew up the original plans for the scheme with Paul Brooke Architects, securing planning permission from Royal Borough of Kingston Council in 2008.
Kingston Heights was constructed for NHP by main contractor United House and includes an up-market 142-bedroom hotel, 81 private apartments (pre-sold to Redrow London) and 56 affordable homes (managed by Affinity Sutton). The development incorporates a ground-breaking district heating scheme abstracting solar energy stored naturally in the River Thames, and has won numerous environmental awards.
"Shackerley's Sureclad® façade system provided exactly what we were looking for," says NHP MD Mike Spenser-Morris.
"Unlike timber and stone, ceramic granite has almost zero porosity and is totally resistant to all climatic extremes, UV light and airborne pollution so our stunning facades will never weather, fade or rot. We are confident that we have specified a superb low-maintenance cladding solution for this outstanding development scheme that will stand the test of time and look just as good in fifteen to twenty years as it does today."
