In March 2020, we were contacted by a major UK-based contractor to review the masonry support designs at Fulham Riverside, a residential-led development on the North Bank of the Thames.

The team on site had noticed that the movement joint was being crushed, and brought us on as consultants to carry out a full review. Through our assessment, we found that the loads being experienced were significantly higher than had been allowed for, with loads in some areas as high as 35 kN, when as little as 11 kN had been expected.

In essence, the masonry support for the project had been under-designed. Crushing of the movement joint meant the masonry façade didn’t adequately allow for movement that would occur as a result of temperature and moisture content, a problem which could ultimately lead to the brickwork cracking. A thorough redesign was required and had to be turned around quickly, not only to ensure Fulham Riverside didn’t suffer serious consequences down the line but to avoid costly delays elsewhere on the site.

In construction, efficiency is always of the essence. With this project, however, the pressure was immense. We were proud that our flexibility and determination meant we were able to deliver success – and lift the contractor from a challenging situation – at Fulham Riverside.

Despite being contacted initially as a consultant, we were brought on straightaway to restart the entire project. The existing masonry and support had to be stripped out and our own installed, and with the project falling significantly behind schedule as a result, everything – including the design work – had to be done at record pace, to help make up the time lost. 

An additional layer of complexity presented itself during the process of having our designs approved. To avoid a repeat of the previous miscalculations, designs that would usually require only minor comments were being subjected to heightened levels of scrutiny. Ultimately, the system held up. Whereas most fully welded systems are rigid, ours was advantageous in that it’s fully adjustable, covering all site tolerances by offering vertical adjustment, lateral adjustment and horizontal adjustment. As a result, we could work at speed and operate with enough flexibility to complete the project on time.

Fulham Riverside masonry support project

Regent's Crescent view from the Regent's Park side

Whilst the Grade I listed crescent facade is a characteristic of the Regent’s Park, due to the Second War damages, it was not viable to retain it. Following extensive research and consultation, Studio PDP decided to rebuilt it – but in the traditional way. There were many complexities and challenges to both the design and construction. The curved site is bounded on three sides by busy roads, including the central London artery of Marylebone Road. A further challenge for this complex project involved mitigating the effects of vibration from the four London Underground lines that pass beneath the site.

Designed by John Nash in the 19th century, Regent’s Crescent is a historic site adjacent to Regent’s Park. Following the building’s damage during the Second World War, the buildings were reconstructed in the 1960s. Following this reconstruction, 

 was recently tasked with redevelopment of the site to comprise sixty-eight new apartments and nine mews houses to the rear.

Studio PDP Regent's Crescent case study

CFS launches patented facade restraint system

, structural engineers working on the project, were looking at ways of mitigating the vibrations in a way that would be compliant with the conservation rules. This for example means the inability to use reveal angles.

AKT II Regent's Crescent case study

CFS have a long history of creating bespoke solutions, and as such they worked on ways to enable for both vertical and horizontal movement. This resulted in a bespoke product for façade retention combining two cast-in channels and a bobbin.

Regent's Crescent facade retention project

The building was designed to achieve BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating. The facade was designed to maximise the light coming in. However, due to its design, the loads that the panels need to withstand are significant.

, 1 Bank Street is a steel-framed office tower with a sloping western façade and flexible design based around cellular beams.

Lindner Group website

Due to its extensive expertise in the design and delivery of glass facade fixings, Construction Fixing Systems were approached to discuss the design. CFS delivered a special design of cast-in channels for the facade, including the design and manufacturing of ski channels.

One Bank Street glass facade project 

 designed bespoke fixings to attach the concrete facade to the main structure. They were looking for a manufacturer who could support them in delivering the solution, including about 18 000 cast-in channels.

Techrete V&A Dundee case study

Victoria and Albert Museum of Design Dundee (V&A Dundee

) is the first V&A built outside London. The design of the facade drew inspiration from the Scottish cliffs and the silhouette of the impressive facade imitates the shape of a ship at dock. Due to the complex geometric slopes and curvatures, coupled with its exposure to the Scottish weather and its proximity to the North Sea marine environment, architectural concrete was the favoured material option for this project.

V&A Dundee

Since this project, CFS has supported Techrete on various projects and we keep working closely.

CFS worked closely with Techrete in order to manufacture the required precast facade support brackets in Duplex stainless steel. We have also worked closely during the building phase of this project in order to deliver the brackets in timely fashion.

Victoria and Albert Museum Dundee facade project

The facade design required a GRC band to be supported as well as masonry support, that sat directly above a GRC diamond. At the time, there was no company offering combined masonry and GRC support brackets. This means, that contractors usually need to deal with two suppliers and two technical teams, one for masonry support and one for GRC support. This naturally brings in the complexity of not only coordinating the two suppliers to ensure timely delivery but also coordinating the actual structural design.

Chelsea Waterfront is a mixed-use redevelopment of the original iconic Lots Road Power Station, originally powering the London underground.

Designed by Sir Terry Farrell, it combines low raise townhouse-style buildings, the original power house, and two new high-rise towers, combined with public access landscape gardens, this redevelopment aims at bringing new life to the area.

114 Lots Road is part of the development. McMullen Facades were contracted by the main contractor, Midgard, to deliver the facade.

Combined GRC and masonry support brackets bring a significant reduction in labour hours on site. Additional savings are made by simplification of the supply chain – this also reduces risk associated with supplier management and increases transparency across the project. This approach proved to be successful and is used in other projects as well.

As a result, CFS is now offering combined GRC and masonry support brackets.

Having worked with CFS on a previous project, McMullen Facades approached CFS to see if there was some way to simplify the situation and invited CFS to tender.

In theory, the GRC and masonry support brackets can be combined into one, however, it brings additional structural challenges to consider and requires a good understanding of structural engineering.

Given CFS's experience both in the design of GRC support and masonry support, CFS were able to consider the additional design challenges and designed a novel type of combined masonry and GRC support bracket. The design adjustment resulted in savings on masonry support brackets, because of smaller material use despite the brackets being relatively large.

Using a combined bracket also meant that Midgard needed to work only with one supplier – simplifying the whole supply chain.

Midgard Design Services rationalised the design to be modular and repetitive. This was achieved by using a small number of masonry pier variations and window openings allowing for repeated supports to be used throughout each level. All this meant that CFS were able to deliver just several variations of the combined GRC and masonry support bracket.

114 Lots Road, Chelsea Waterfront combined GRC and masonry support project

The building was designed with high internal walls. To make these walls stable, Pyramid Builders needed to include windposts to increase lateral wall stability.

During the construction of the New National Wembley Stadium, Pyramid Builders provided to the main contractor Multiplex Construction UK a fully integrated package that included brickwork, blockwork, stonework, engineering, steel windposts, firestopping and scaffolding along with the logistical management of all associated deliveries.

CFS manufactured and supplied the steel windposts used in the construction.

Based on the provided design, CFS provided custom manufactured steel posts up to 10m long to restrain the internal walls.

These steel posts are integrated within the block walls.

Wembley Stadium windpost project

The Coventry Very Light Rail track system with CFS channels and T-bolts on display at The University of Warwick. 

Although light rail systems offer benefits for cities in terms of transportation and air quality, the costs associated with system installation are often out of reach given funding constraints. Typical system costs may be in excess of £70 million per kilometre meaning that new networks are likely to run to billions of pounds. Early project research by the WMG-Coventry City Council team revealed that a significant proportion of these costs are related to the diversion of utilities. Convention light rail systems utilise deep foundations, leading to interaction with utilities and therefore resulting in diversions, delays and project management costs.

Coventry City Council set WMG the challenge of developing a low-profile light rail track system that requires a dig depth of no more than 30 cm. Together with an innovation partner 

, a high-performance shallow slab system was developed meeting the requirements for mechanical performance due to both the light rail vehicles and heavy good vehicles. To achieve secure fixing of the rails to the high-performance slabs, the fixing inserts need to provide flexibility and be able to withstand the applied forces. Another consideration is for the fixing bolts to provide reliable integrity for long-term exposure. They have to be secure yet allow for enough movement caused by the tram cars and the material expansion due to the weather exposure. They also need to be durable to long-term repetitive loading from rail and road vehicles.

Ingerop-Rendel

 aims to develop a mass transport solution, providing a viable alternative to the car, helping to improve air quality, reduce CO2 emissions and reduce congestion. The project was launched by Coventry City Council, who worked alongside 

 to create a game-changing public transport solution.

Coventry Very Light Rail project overview

WMG website

The vehicle is battery-powered, eliminating the need for overhead wires. It has an innovative turning system allowing it to handle 15m radius curves, meaning it can be installed in tight corners in the existing highway, and the Council intends to operate it at a high frequency to provide a turn-up and go service. The vehicle has a capacity of 56, is comfortable, and has low floors to enable passengers to embark and disembark easily. It has been developed to allow autonomous operation in the future.

The low-profile track makes use of advanced materials to optimise its performance characteristics, whilst also employing standard rail parts where possible to ensure ease of manufacturing and use of existing supply chains.

The support from CFS helped WMG to deliver a functional design that has the potential to revolutionise city public transport infrastructure projects.

CFS and WMG continue working together to further optimise the design. We are currently looking at changing the coating of the bolts to modify friction but provide equivalent corrosion protection as galvanising. The benefit is that the reduced friction can provide more reliable bolt torque to be achieved.

Having worked together on this project WMG and CFS have started a partnership that focuses on new product development for the precast industry.

As WMG was looking to bring their vision to life, they searched for a supplier that could provide channels that could meet the demanding mechanical performance required. As this is not a standard application, finding a supplier with both the technical knowledge and the products to support the project proved to be a challenge.

Also, as this is a significant civil engineering R&D project, WMG required for their suppliers to be flexible. WMG undertook all the prototype testing in-house using their advanced testing facilities.

Thanks to its technical department, CFS was able to work in partnership with WMG to specify the right design, focusing on a bespoke channel with a large profile and a shallow anchor. Being a supplier with vast technical expertise in cast-in channels, CFS was able to react promptly and support WMG with the design.

Coventry Very Light Rail Project

Sheldebouw were tasked with designing the building’s glazed envelope. The key challenge in the case of Shard was the building’s irregular shape. As the architect’s vision asked for a highly transparent facade with excellent energy efficiency, Sheldebouw opted for extra-clear low-iron glass. The glazing panels were installed to oversail the steel frames, making them invisible from the outside. Due to new regulations introduced in 2006, the whole facade was designed as a passive double-skin ventilated facade with built-in automatic fiberglass roller blinds.

Similarly, Shard Place, built several years later, has a double-skin glass facade.

In both cases, Sheldebouw needed an experienced partner to design and deliver fixings for the glass facade.

The Shard Quarter, developed in several phases, consists of three buildings: News Building, Shard Place, and Shard itself. Thanks to Sheldebouw, a leader in the curtain wall industry, CFS were involved in the building of Shard and Shard Place.

The Shard, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, was designed as a ‘vertical city’. Shard Place (aka Fielden House) is a residential building built in the third phase of the development.

CFS has extensive experience in designing fixing solutions for glass facades as well as project management to minimise any unexpected delays. Being able to combine their technical expertise and manufacturing capabilities makes them an ideal partner for large complex projects.

In both cases, CFS designed and delivered cast-in channels to fix mullions supporting the glass panels of the facade, including relevant T-bolts.

Shard Quarter glass facade project

Award-winning architects Patel Taylor have been inspired in their facade design by London’s classic redbrick mansion blocks. Where residential blocks tend to be uniformly designed, Patel Taylor made subtle changes to each story, meaning each level has a unique design.

The facade itself was designed by Ardmore to consist of stone and brick elements.

The general concept was that there was a stone band that went through each level, that would support the masonry. Originally, there were two suppliers to deliver the façade, one for the stone support and stone delivery and CFS, both designing and delivering the masonry support.

This proved quite a challenge in terms of coordination of the project, given two different suppliers were providing different types of brackets, especially since each level was slightly differently designed.

 is a large regeneration project in south London, being built in several phases due to the sheer scale of the project. Phase 4a, the latest phase of this large project, will provide 386 new homes for shared ownership and affordable rent. The £120 million development will also include a new NHS medical centre and flexible workspaces for local entrepreneurs.

’s involvement in the scheme focuses on seven blocks of up to 18-storey residential blocks, arranged around a garden square called New Mansion Square.

The Ardmore group now works closely with CFS, where CFS is brought in early in the project to deliver the design of the masonry support in collaboration with the Ardmore group.

CFS also offers initial design meetings outside of the project to discuss the possibilities and if there could be challenges to consider, such as the placement of the fire barrier. This also gives an opportunity to discuss requirements and design considerations that could possibly make the masonry support cheaper to deliver.

Since the Battersea Power Station Phase 4a project, CFS and Ardmore group established a process that means that the projects are planned seamlessly.

To simplify the delivery of the project, CFS were asked to tap into their masonry support knowledge to apply the same design principles to the stone support. This also helped to solve one of the design concerns as when the stone was supported by masonry support, the cavity became less congested on the slab face. 

CFS were also able to coordinate with several suppliers to provide the stone components and support for the facade in time as they were needed. In some areas brackets were not needed, so close collaboration between all suppliers was needed to ease the pressure for storage at the construction site.

It also helps that CFS's masonry support brackets are adjustable during the installation.

New Mansion Square masonry and stone support project

The redevelopment was a sizeable project to deliver, blending old masonry facade and new additions, the project required a big attention to detail. Every level required a slightly different design. The Ardmore Group required a project partner who would be able to minimise the risks and challenges during the major heritage refurbishment. 

The redevelopment of Southwark Fire Station was a major mixed-use development, branded as Brigade Court. The plans included a comprehensive refurbishment of a Grade II listed former fire station, Headquarters, museum, and training facility originally built in 1777, alongside the development of a 10-storey residential building to create 199 new apartments, commercial space, and a new school to house 1,150 students.

The new secondary school with a sixth form was designed by Peter Taylor Associates to blend in, incorporating space within the existing fire station as well as a new building that is being constructed using pre-fabricated off-site modular technology.

The project was awarded to Ardmore Group due to their experience with complex projects and major refurbishments.

The Ardmore Group decided to bring in CFS to support the project because of our extensive experience in complex masonry support design. This project required a significant number of designs that had little repetition per floor never mind per level. CFS worked together with the Ardmore Group to provide design of the masonry support used.

Southwark Fire Station redevelopment - masonry support project

The view of Electric Bouleward at Battersea focusing on the Battersea Gardens

Whilst technically it’s one building, practically it is several buildings together with different uses. The balconies were designed from levels five to thirteen, some levels along the whole building. However, given the mixed usage, and subtle changes to the internal design based on the individual owner requirements, it meant that each level had different loads with very little repetition.

Additionally, there were requirements for fire safety at REI 120 standard as well as additional thermal breaks for balconies.

Situated alongside the Electric Boulevard, the large building designed by Foster + Partners combines multiple uses: 164-room art’otel, Battersea Roof Gardens, Koa apartments, shops, and restaurants.

CFS designed all balcony connectors using the 

 system. It’s a very flexible system and we were able to provide a custom design with 120mm insulation instead of the standard 80mm. CFS assembles them on-site at Medmenham, meaning that we can be flexible and minimise any delays. Having extensive experience working on large projects, it was easy for us to coordinate the design and deliveries to the site.

Balcony connectors for concrete balconies

Battersea Power Station Phase 3a balcony project

Lombard Wharf view from the bottom of the building 

, was appointed to deliver the architectural precast concrete cladding for the facade from the design, manufacture to the delivery. Despite the varying form, there is a high degree of repetition in the precast forms, minimising formwork costs: the formwork ‘masters’ changed for each set-back but were repeated on each floor. 

Techrete Lombard Wharf case study

The outer profile is always consistent; the inner profile varies using a secondary former inserted into the main formwork shutter. The inner profile is lined with a thermal break connector (concrete-to-concrete) for connection to the reinforcement in the main structural slab. The balconies have a waterproof membrane on the upper surface and are overlaid with a composite decking system.

Given the balconies form the perimeter of the building, they required a reliable supplier who would be potentially able to support the balcony design.

, the residential tower in Battersea has an impressive silhouette. The original design focuses on maximising the available provision of public space at the base of the building for pedestrian and cycle routes around the site as well as the need to maintain existing views of the river and the land. The building itself has become dominant on the Thames riverbank. Finished in 2017, the project was awarded several prizes, including Housebuilder Awards 2016 and What House Awards 2017.

Patel Taylor Lombard Wharf case study

The design itself presents a building that appears to twist as it rises, which was achieved with very subtle changes to the positioning of the white precast concrete balconies.

Having worked with the Construction Fixing Systems previously on various projects, including the 

, they approached CFS to provide a suitable solution for the thermal breaks.

The Thermokorb® system by AVI is a very flexible thermal break system that allows wide range of concrete-to-concrete balcony designs. As a partner, CFS has not only the capacity to supply large projects but also the expertise to support with the structural design of the thermal breaks. As they are assembled on their site at Medmenham, CFS is able to deliver the system within 3 weeks from design to delivery to the site for casting.

Lombard Wharf balcony project

Leadenhall building front entrance picture

From design to the actual construction, this was a challenging project to deliver. Given the construction site location, off site construction techniques needed to be used as much as possible as there is not enough space on the location.

It was the first time floors from fifth level were assembled rather than poured on site.

The Leadenhall Building, or Cheesegrater as it is also known, was designed by ROGERS STIRK HARBOUR + PARTNERS with its frontage angled at 10.62 degrees, in order to protect the view of London’s landmarks, such as the St.Paul’s Cathedral.

Because of the design, it has a different structural design from other high-rise buildings. Leadenhall has two structural elements: a superstructure on its perimeter comprising the office floors, alongside a northern support core, which houses all passenger and goods lifts, service risers, on-floor plant and WCs. Office floors are connected to the structural tube at every floor without the need for further perimeter columns.

Construction Fixing Systems have an extensive experience for supplying components for precast concrete projects. For this project, they delivered well void tubes as well as continuity rebar couplers connecting the concrete slabs to the north core.

The Leadenhall Building

Precast components stacked for the delivery

As a design and build specialist, PCE coordinate all the design, no matter the size of the project. As such, they have an internal design team as well as a multidisciplined installation team. In their work, they focus on off-site manufacturing. To be able to deliver large-scale projects efficiently, they developed unique HybriDfMA systems that are based on pre-determined, optimised ‘kits of parts’ that are both repeatable and scalable, whilst maintaining the flexibility to configure components to a clients unique needs. This is why their in-house design team works on standardisation to maintain exceptional quality, and why the highest quality manufacturing is crucial to successful project delivery. 

Throughout project delivery, coordinating manufacturing process on such scale is both complex and challenging. In order to be able to deliver their jobs significantly quicker than typical traditional building methods, PCE built its manufacturing model centered around a flexible offsite approach, underpinned by the latest in digital innovation and manufacturing technology. Also, by the nature of these large-scale projects, for example 

 was a 10-month manufacturing period producing nearly 14,000 offsite components, supply needs can vary significantly.

HMP Fosse Way project

 'system build' solutions for structures and facades, PCE deliver world-class quality across the design and build process.

HybriDfMA system

With leading expertise in modular construction and 50 years of Modern Methods of Construction experience, the employee-owned company ensure industry-leading client value through data driven insight, cutting edge automation, and optimised, flexible structural and facade systemised solutions. PCE utilises a ‘kit of parts’ DfMA (design for manufacture and assembly) philosophy, benefiting from standardisation coupled with a hybrid of materials and construction techniques, offering enhanced safety, quality, speed, and value across all build sectors.

Together PCE and CFS were able to standardise the specification process. Together we built rules to automate this process to save time without impacting the quality. Now, the specification of any lifting sockets is one less worry for the PCE team.

By providing a standardised set of lifting methods by CFS, PCE ltd are able to build assurance that the quality of parts manufactured by their suppliers will be maintained.

CFS has also listened to their feedback and made adjustments to their own standard designs to accommodate PCE requirements.

In their quest to standardise the process to be able to deliver quality projects timely, PCE was looking for a partner to support them. They already had relationships with other CFS clients from the precast industry.

However, they decided to bring CFS into the process earlier. First, CFS was able to deliver specific changes to their products to support PCE’s proprietary designs. They also used their technical knowledge to work with PCE on various scenarios to deliver detailed documentation including product data, test data, and imagery to allow for easy specification of products by engineers and make the coordination between several precasters easier to maintain the required quality.

Lastly, CFS being both reseller and manufacturer also means they can provide flexible stocking to enable full flexibility of the projects PCE is working on.

Various large-scale custodial projects

Projects

Privacy Policy

Terms and conditions

Construction Fixing Systems Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 2567516.

VAT number: GB 531 3821 72