70 St Mary Axe, London
The Project
Integra Contracts recently completed the ceiling and beam installation for the reception space of this distinctive and iconic London building.
Its in-house design team worked collaboratively with Mass Concrete to ensure precise alignment between ceiling and wall finishes, continuing the seamless linear theme between vertical and horizontal planes.
The double-height space reflects the external cladding lines, creating a unique and dramatic space that is both bright and airy.
The polished chrome Tubeline ceiling that sits between the concrete beams has been designed to be 100% demountable and enables all of the usual MEP services to be contained within the ceiling, whilst still maintaining the desired acoustic functions.
The design challenged the build to create an allowance for tolerance within the building and movement capabilities, a unique suspension system was meticulously designed using bespoke floating hook over brackets allowing a margin of tolerance within the structural grade primary frame to allow the beams to perfectly line up with the curtain wall mullions maintaining the aesthetic appearance.
Off-site mock-ups were created, tested and fine-tuned, including trialing lighting to ensure the correct lighting variance and lux levels were achieved to create the desired atmosphere.