Roller blinds, Specials
Manhattan Loft Gardens
42-Storey, 143m tall and situated in the heart of London’s thriving community, Manhattan Loft Gardens provides a luxury, unique way of living.
Overview
Location: Stratford, London
Overall Project Value: £250m
Project Details:
- 143m tall
- 42 storeys
- 150 hotel rooms and 248 residential apartments
Installer: Enviroscreen Systems
Architect: SOM
Contractor: Bouygues
Shading Details:
- Total of 3335 blinds manufactured and supplied
- Sirios medium rollers and Helios large rollers with matching blackout and dimout fabrics
- SMI motors linked with DALI lighting control for seamless operation from wall-mounted controls
- Chain operated blinds with bespoke child safety chain retainers designed to match the façade colour and style
Design Challenge
With 143m of serrated façade, the entire building comprises of tall narrow windows providing floor to ceiling light into each apartment. The challenge here was to find a fabric and a roller blind system that would give suitable shading from direct sunlight, and also look aesthetically pleasing when used at a very narrow width.
The next challenge was providing a control solution for the motorised blinds that would interface with the DALI lighting module that had been selected. However, due to the façade design, many windows were too narrow for a standard mains voltage motor. It was also important that the necessary interfaces didn’t take up too much space in the service units.
Solution
Enviroscreen Systems chose to partner with Umbra in designing and resolving technical challenges with the blinds that would work with their bespoke blind box detail fitting with the serrated façade.
After testing a wide variety of fabrics we eventually settled on a matching dimout and blackout that met all the criteria – aesthetics, performance, colour and price. This European fabric was imported and used on our Sirios and Helios roller blind systems to shade the long, narrow windows.
Vestamatic SMI 240v motors were used to simplify wiring and many motors were custom-made to a shorter length so they would fit in the narrow window openings. Bespoke software was also written, tested and loaded onto custom-built interfaces to allow bidirectional communication between the DALI lighting control and the blinds.
