Address: Elephant & Castle, London
Client: Brookfield Multiplex
Gallery
Strata / Castle House, London
Strata, standing 147m high over 43 floors, has created 310 homes and was the largest residential tower in London upon completion.
At the time of construction there was an attempt by journalists to nickname the building “The Razor”, and “The Electric Razor” , then Mayor of London, called it “The Lipstick”, while describing it as a building “with a bit of oomph about it”. None of these nicknames seriously caught on with local residents, however.
We received the order to provide a BMU due to our ability to solve complex access problems and provide bespoke solutions.
The BMU has a small parking garage below the wind turbines from which it operates. To move the BMU in and out of the parking garage, the track has within its design a powered transfer carriage, which acts to bring the BMU to its working position on the outside twin tracks, thus enabling it to be stored out of sight when idle. This innovative system, combined with an electrically powered moving and tilting gate, ensures safety within the parking garage for the operatives when the BMU is stored.
The BMU itself has a maximum outreach of 19 meters, the design incorporates a 115 degrees jib head slew and a 3.8 meter wide cradle, thus enabling operatives to access the whole of the façade for maintenance/cleaning works.