CHANGE OF USE BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO DISUSED OFFICE BUILDINGS

Cities have to constantly change and adapt to survive. Fortunately, architects and property owners with vision are capitalising on this, increasingly finding new and innovative ways to keep our building heritage in active service. Many are converted to residential use, restaurants, clubs, galleries and of course Hotels, thereby maintaining the vibrancy that a city needs.

A consequence of a vibrant neighbourhood is noise and Selectaglaze, the UK’s leading specialist in secondary glazing systems has recently been involved with two Central London boutique hotel developments, The Zetter Hotel in Clerkenwell and Hotel Indigo in the Minories.

Originally a warehouse and once the home of the football pools company of the same name, the owners of the 59-room Zetter Hotel aim to reduce energy consumption and become carbon neutral. To this end the Hotel collects fresh water via its own borehole beneath the building and has installed an energy loop system capable of swapping energy around to heat rooms and cool fridges. The hotel retained the building’s original sash windows and installed bi-folding shutters to the room side of the bedrooms but this combination did not provide the required level of noise insulation. To remedy this, Selectaglaze provided sliding secondary units fitted flush to the window openings, allowing easy access to the shutters and external windows.

Hotel Indigo is a four star hotel, part of the word-wide InterContinental Hotels Group, occupying what was formerly an office building and bank. As part of the conversion to a top class boutique hotel it was decided to replace the bedroom windows with double glazed frames but standard double glazing does not provide the levels of sound insulation required by guests. The solution was to install secondary glazing, thus creating triple-glazing which offered noise insulation in excess of 45dB and further improved the energy performance of the window, reducing heating costs and improving sustainability.