Royal Opera House
Client: Royal Opera House
Principal Contractor: Schal Construction Management
Architect: Dixon Jones and BDP
Package Value: £2.7M
Szerelmey undertook the construction of the prestigious £2.7 million Covent Garden arcade of the Royal Opera House. The package included all the 200m2 of hand set Portland and stone-clad precast concrete to the five storey elevations, including the columns, cornices and string courses.
The individual parts of the 29 5.5m high columns were prepared off site then threaded on to stainless steel stanchions and lightly tensioned. They were then placed in specially designed cradles and transported to site.
The team had to overcome significant challenges within the design of the arcade, in particular the spanning of the 4m gap between the columns. In order to support the heavy weight of the string course above, without the deflection in the lintels going above 1.5mm, the team chose a stoneclad stainless steel lattice lintel option. This provided the structural support required to hold the stonework above.
