One Silk Street

The developments 75 apartments and 300,000ft² office space are a paean to style and luxury, with occupants being afforded impressive views across Manchester and towards The Pennines, the rugged uplands known as ‘the Backbone of Britain’.

A development of such profile required expert for the design and manufacture of a range of stainless-steel masonry support systems to facilitate the required finish for brickwork areas throughout the development. IG Masonry Support was more than up to the task.

IG Masonry Support were required to supply a high volume of deep soffit panels for the One Silk Street building. These included the building’s outskirts, a roof area transitioning to a car park, and each window throughout the development. The challenges for our technical team in relation to this application were numerous. Firstly, brick components varied in length and soffit templates had not been designed. Therefore, in order to achieve a seamless blend with already-constructed brickwork onsite, we were required to design a bespoke range of individually-sized stainless-steel masonry support and brick slip systems, in collaboration with our client, Northern Group.

The intricacies involved in delivering largescale brickwork solutions varying in detail were compounded by the project’s tight timescales to ensure the development was delivered on the agreed date and to budget. A further issue was provided by the stepped brick detailing around the windows. With no access to drawings that outlined where bricks were located on the building, IG Masonry Support nonetheless needed to ensure horizontal and vertical coursing calculations were on-point as part of its masonry support provision.

The interchangeable window heads integral to our mechanically-fixed brick slip soffit system, B.O.S.S +, were crucial to overcoming issues presented by the two-way design challenges of the brickwork’s corbelled pattern. This replaceable capability was not only essential to meeting the architect’s aesthetic ambition for the brickwork, the ease with which the window heads were swapped allowed the installing contractor to complete this element of the project quickly and efficiently.

Our design and manufacturing skills were also to the fore for the delivery of a safe, secure ramp area in the One Silk Street development. Hence, we supplied a range of additional bracketry in order to affix the large brick soffits situated above the ramp area, with the support structure varying in places.

Due to the sheer volume and range of brick soffit systems required – 60 were designed for the car park entrance’s roof alone – we faced a huge challenge in fulfilling the client’s intentions for this exceptional development. Yet, we embraced each hurdle; our innovative lightweight brick slip soffit system, B.O.S.S +, providing the design flexibility and structural stability to put a contemporary brickwork finish on a building that reflects Manchester’s proud industrial past.