New Court

Design procurement and installation of the well detailed external facades in Jura limestone cladding in a combination of finishes together with the restoration of the existing Portland stone facades.

New Build Masonry

Gallery Of Work

NEW COURT

New Court is the prestigious new HQ for Rothschild Bank in St Swithin's Lane. Szerelmey's specialist expertise was engaged to design and construct both a raised Travertine Stone Floor with a matching Travertine Stone suspended ceiling and soffit. The bespoke flooring system was designed in-house with a view to not only accommodating the building services, but also to allow a fast and clean installation. A raised support system was used which enabled the services to not only be hidden but also be accessed when required. Calcium Sulphate boards containing a large percentage of recycled materials were used to form a level platform. These were chosen because of their acoustic qualities and the monolithic strength achieved by the tongue and grooved jointing system. The stone was pressure applied to these boards off-site, saving on time and disruption. The design took into account all of the likely disruption and mess in using traditional wet trades and arrived at a system that minimised both. It is very likely that had the architect engaged a manufacturer rather than an installer, the system would have been very different. With the flooring being required in the building reception area, thus being the entrance to the rest of the building, keeping installation time and mess to an absolute minimum was paramount. The high specification of the materials used in the project required that both dirt and dust was kept to an absolute minimum and this was achieved. The flooring system involved 420 sq metres of Travertine Stone and despite being raised, BRE tests established that it can sustain a 30KN point load.

The ceiling was another challenging project as possibly stone may not be the natural choice for a suspended ceiling. Again bespoke design by the Szerelmey team came up trumps. The suspended ceiling had to hide Electrical Cables, CCTV Systems, Alarm Systems, Sprinkler Systems in addition to housing a Heavy Duty Curtain Track System. The elimination of wet trades was again to the fore along with off-site assembly. By the use of cutting edge design, the installation period accounted for around 20% of the time it would have taken to install a traditional stone ceiling. The suspended ceiling had to hide Electrical Cables, CCTV Systems, Alarm Systems, Sprinkler Systems in addition to housing a Heavy Duty Curtain Track System. Szerelmey developed the use of a composite honeycomb reinforced travertine veneered panel. Stone thickness were reduced to 8mm resulting in a lightweight 25mm thick stone ceiling panels able to be suspended from a standard British Gypsum hanging system, allowing cost effective integration of  bespoke and standard materials. The implication of avoiding the requirement for a project specific support system for 420 sq metres of stone ceiling was again influential in the procurement process. The resulting design and the expertise of Szerelmey enabled a signature architectural statement to be made with the stone ceiling reflecting the stone floor in every aspect. Whilst the scale of this project made the design and installation cost effective, there remains no reason why a stone floor and ceiling could not be installed on this basis in any building of similar proportions, such as hotels and other communal areas. Whatever assumptions you may arrive at, this project had strict budgets to adhere to and the cost savings designed into this system are as relevant in any other environment as they were here. The ceiling was also mirrored in the soffit arrangement where a further 420 sq metres of matching Travertine Stone was used externally.

Szerelmey supplied and installed Stone Paving, Steps and hard landscaping around the building's entrance and also in the shadow of the Wren designed, St Stephen Walbrook Church.