A landmark new mixed use development in the heart of an historic part of Leicester has been given a modern makeover thanks to a range of high performance aluminium fenestration solutions from Senior Architectural Systems.

Designed by Franklin Ellis Architects, the new building in the New Walk area of the city is located on the site of the former council offices and features high quality office space, residential apartments and ground floor retail units.

The scheme saw Senior work alongside main contractor John Sisk Ltd, with whom Senior has an established supplier agreement, and specialist contractor Elite Aluminium Systems Ltd. To maximise the benefits of supply chain collaboration and value engineering, Senior’s experienced team of architectural advisors were on hand throughout the contract to provide full technical and design support.

A key feature of the scheme is the striking facetted facade of the main building which has been created using Senior’s popular SF52 aluminium curtain walling system. Here, Elite Aluminium Systems’ technical expertise was vital to the successful interpretation of the architect’s vision, as owing to the faceting of the curtain wall frames and the irregular formation of the mullions and transoms, each aluminium bar had to be manually drawn to enable them to be accurately fabricated.

To provide visual consistency and improved thermal performance, Senior’s SF52 system was specified to create the facades of the retail, residential and business elements of the scheme. The retail units also feature Senior’s high-performance thermally-broken aluminium SPW501 aluminium doors, with the residential apartments benefiting from Senior’s SPW600 aluminium windows and doors.  The package specified for the business premises also comprises Senior’s SPW600 aluminium casement windows, SPW501 thermally-broken doors and Senior’s robust SD aluminium doors, which are ideally suited to high-traffic applications.

The New Walk scheme is one of the latest contracts to be completed by Senior and valued trade partner Elite Aluminium System, adding strength to the two companies’ successful working partnership which has seen Senior supplying products to Elite for the past 24 years.