Excellence delivered in Manchester with Gilberts

2 New Bailey, in the heart of Manchester’s regenerating commercial centre, has achieved a BREEAM excellent rating, gained by using a VRF heating & cooling system, with airflow delivered into the occupied spaces via Gilberts Blackpool‘s grilles and diffusers.

Across the 188,500 square foot, 11-storey high building, more than 1000 GSFA premium circular swirl diffusers make an architectural feature of the exposed building services.

Each of the contemporary-styled GSFA swirl diffusers has been set between the 3.6m high rafters, providing horizontal, high induction ventilation, giving high air change rates with rapid entrainment and intermixing, without cold spots or draughts.

The theme of architectural design is to the fore in the main reception atrium as well, where jet nozzles create an elevated ‘wall’ effect, and a millimetre-precise 8.7m long flangeless L-RC linear strip grille further enhances the interior aesthetics.

In the two-storey reception area, the jet nozzles create a suspended, high level ‘wall’. Gilberts manufactured and supplied some of the 200 units as an architectural feature, to create the aesthetic effect without detracting from the ventilation strategy and targets.

Further adding to the interior design, Gilberts manufactured and supplied a linear bar grille to create a continuous vent 8794mm long. This was supplied with a further 5 x 1m blanking plates, precisely cut and fitted on site to achieve the design objective.

Gilberts’ GXD air valves extract air from the WCs throughout the building to remove excess moisture and odours.

Ian Buxton, commercial director at AB Engineering, building services contractor to Bowmer + Kirkland, the main contractor for the project, commented: “The appearance of all the fixtures and fittings was essential to the architect and client, especially as so much of the ventilation is exposed.

“We obviously did not want to disappoint;  we knew that the GSFA diffusers were a really good, tried and tested, solution that we knew would work.

“We also knew Gilberts could deliver the level of service with the capability to develop bespoke solutions as needed. The Gilberts’ offerings met all the aesthetic requirements of the design concept.”