Steel Window Association Awards

ASWS was involved at various stages of the Battersea Power Station project going back to the Millennium, carrying out initial condition surveys both inside and outside the massive building. ASWS was also tasked with restoring steel windows and other architectural metalwork in locations, such as the iconic Control Room A looking out over the vast turbine hall that first produced electricity in 1933.

Chris Davies, from WilkinsonEyre, commented, “While the window sections themselves were not in particularly bad condition, other metal components had suffered severe corrosion. A lot of the cladding had to be replaced and we brought ASWS in as a specialist back in 2014 – originally to conduct a thorough survey and then, later, as a sub-contractor to one of the larger contractors.”

When it came to matching the original colour of the faceted six-bay window in Control Room A, ASWS was referred to an episode of The Sweeney called ‘Country Boy’ where the Flying Squad make enquiries at the old power station. Having been shot-blasted and protected with a corrosion inhibiting primer, the old mid-Universal suite sections were hand painted in what became known as Sweeney Grey, while ASWS also had mastic produced to match.

The company additionally had to call on the skills of its glass supplier to produce sections of laminated safety glass to replace the original glazing, which featured varying curves both on plan and elevation. ASWS further showed its experience and initiative by deciding to make timber formers to match the curves of the very thin and badly rusted steel panels which infilled the area below the windows.

ASWS has provided its unique skillset to a company carrying out an equally unusual style of redevelopment within the property’s long neglected top floor level.

ASWS carried out a comprehensive, yet carefully considered repair and replacement contract at County Hall on behalf of Cast Interiors, whereby as much as possible of an old building is reused or repurposed to minimise waste. All the work was completed within a very tight timescale; including additional works not originally envisaged.

Following its completion of a detailed condition survey on behalf of the project consultants, ASWS was duly tasked with repairing and easing a total of 134 faceted bay windows, many of which had suffered heavy corrosion.

Though generally measuring 1.2 x 2.1metres, the three section dormers were two metres square and had been exposed to the full force of the weather. For the 11 openings which required new frames fabricating, ASWS drew on its experience in replica refurbishment in order to respect the Grade II listing.

Late on in the 13-week programme, ASWS was also asked to undertake the redecoration of the all the windows. And although this was limited to spot-priming areas of bare metal and applying one topcoat, it did involve the window specialist’s operatives putting in a lot of overtime, including weekend working.

The refurbished workspaces were successfully completed in April 2023.

Bletchingdon is a village and civil parish, 2 miles north of Kidlington and 6 miles southwest of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England.

The Bletchingdon project is a new build housing estate, built by Allen Build Contractors, for the Duchy of Cornwall. The client wanted to build houses, who’s appearance would be in keeping with the surrounding area and that would have a positive impact on the village. The design of the windows was key to achieving this. As the project was new build the windows would need to meet building regulations and part Q for security. But the fenestration would still need to have narrow sightlines. W30 section was approved as it was already a FENSA registered product, but no one in the industry at the time had achieved part Q. So, our design team quickly put together a solution and achieved part Q intime for manufacture.

Once the design had been agreed we worked with Allen build to install seven hundred windows into sixty-one new homes. The windows being fitted into a stone and timber clad surrounds to produce a striking end product.

Govette Windows Ltd are proud to have completed this project in conjunction with the client Sarah Stirrett and the builder Kantec.

Concept One Architects were appointed by Sarah to provide the design brief. We liaised with them to understand the clients priorities for this project. It became apparent that Sarah wanted large door and window screens that had a design identity that complemented the original houses large sash windows.

We therefore offered our W20 steel door screens as they have the slimmest profiles available with 28 mm wide true glazing bars, each pane of glass is a separate double glazed unit. This system is BFRC registered ‘B’ energy rated and is double rebated with dual weatherstripping. Hot dip galvanising ensures maximum weather protection.

Sarah was concerned about the frame colour choice and how it melded with the external brick colour. Luckily Sarah had visited our Instagram page and found a project where we had used a powder coat finish called Pearl Beige RAL 1035 matt which she liked. The paint has a slight pearlescent finish and so makes the colour appear different in certain natural light conditions. The door handles and window ironmongery supplied by SWA member Steel Window Fittings Ltd was also powder coated to this colour.

Originally Sarah had also enquired about an internal double door screen with hinged swing doors but then decided that this would have been obtrusive due to the rooms furniture layout. We therefore manufactured and installed an internal steel sliding double door screen which allowed maximum floor space, allowed natural ligt to flow through from the outise in and complemented the external screens.

Sarah said…’This was something I’ always wanted to do, because I think steel framed windows just have that timeless, industrial appearance and would really suit the style of our old Edwardian house…’

Govette Windows Ltd are proud to have completed this project in conjunction with the client Louise Askaroff and the builder Comber & sons.

Stephen Lancer Architects were appointed by Louise to provide the design brief. We liaised with them to understand the clients priorities for this project. It became apparent that Louise wanted to ensure that the product profiles were slim to ensure that the vista through was undiminished especially when viewing the local deer’s that graze in her garden. The product needed to be strong and durable due to the properties exposed location.

We therefore offered our W20 steel door screens as they have the slimmest profiles available with 28 mm wide true glazing bars, each pane of glass is a separate double glazed unit. This system is BFRC registered ‘B’ energy rated and is double rebated with dual weather-stripping. Hot dip galvanising ensures maximum weather protection.

We also installed an internal steel double door screen to complement the external screens glazed with 6.4 mm laminated safety glass.

Louise came into our factory showroom to see our product and to determine what choices she had for the frame colour and ironmongery styles. Louise opted for a RAL 8022 black/brown powder coat finish as she felt that this colour would be warmer than a stark black frame especially sitting against the external brick work. She chose oil rubbed bronze finish door handles and window ironmongery supplied by SWA member Steel Window Fittings Ltd.

Louise said…’went above and beyond to help us install our glazing in time for a large kitchen installation…..we have no doubt we will be using them for future projects.’

Whiteleys was a shopping centre in Bayswater, London. It was built in the retail space of the former William Whiteley Limited department store, which opened in 1911 as one of London’s first department stores.

In December 2018, Whiteleys was closed for redevelopment. It has been converted into a Norman Foster-designed mixed-use asset comprising 139 condominium apartments, the UK’s first Six Senses hotel. As part of Westminster Councils planning approval, they required nine original composite windows to be fully restored and reinstated into the building. But because these windows would not have any extensive window performance it was necessary support the install with new high performance thermal break windows behind the renovated primary.

But these two very different doors screens would need to be connected, via a 100mm cavity closer. The cavity between the primary and secondary doors was not airtight, so the design had to be ventilated and drained. But this construct could not alter the external original fenestration.

To solve the problem, we introduced ventilation above the stone head and below the cill line running under the primary frame. The cavity below the cill was also used as drainage. Once the design had been agreed we delivered the completed project in December 2023.

Our client had purchased a Victorian wallpaper factory in West London. The building had been already refurbished in the 1980s and W20 steel windows had been installed. But the steel windows fitted, removed the small pane design, and reverted to large panes and panelled all the curved heads. Returning the windows back to their original cast iron construction and at the same time improved the U value performance of the product.

We initially offered a W20 section frame in small panes which is a common product for this type of building. But the client felt this was not sympathetic enough, with this in mind we needed a more radicle approach, we found a rarely used arrow section Series 200 still rolled which mimicked cast iron. But a regular heritage double glazed unit would be too large for the rebate, so we sourced a new product to the UK Fineo double glazed unit, which provided a front to back sized unit of 8mm but more importantly the sight line of only 6mm. The combination of these two materials provided a great finished result.

We provided samples and design information, then quickly moved to manufacture in our London factory and in December 2023 we were very proud to deliver the finished product to our client.
Finishing with a big thank you to all the West Leigh team who worked on the Voysey House project. From the factory visits to discussions on site, the team were clear and knowledgeable in what they were delivering, and the finished product has helped transform the building.