Colour-coding Windows at New Build Special School

When the specification for a new-build special school called for a colour coding of windows with unusual bespoke reveals and cills, the solution came in a combination of PVC-U windows set in made-to-order aluminium surrounds.

Birkenhead-based K2 Aluminium Systems Ltd, despite its name, is also an established PVC-U installer, so was ideally placed to come up with the solution based on pressed aluminium cills and exterior reveals around VEKA frames from the Glazerite UK Group.

Palmerston School, Liverpool, is a special school for pupils aged 11 to 19 with multiple learning difficulties, and is now housed in the new-built premises replacing an original building nearby. The windows are colour coded in red, blue, yellow and green to help pupils to navigate around the school and to identify different areas.

The work, for main contractor Kier Construction, entailed 55 windows, each with four top-openers, in RAL 7012 Basalt Grey foil of white. The aluminium elements were pressed and powder coated to order for K2 and also included an upright panel between each frame and cill to allow additional ventilation space beneath the lower openers. Also in the contract were five glazed doors fabricated in Schueco aluminium.

The bespoke elements required careful planning and drawing, as K2 commercial manager Liam Bird explained: “It was quite an unusual specification but one where our background in both PVC-U and aluminium paid dividends. Working with Glazerite on the PVC-U fabrication and with our own experience of aluminium, we were able to complete the work to specification and without problems and the result speaks for itself.”

The Glazerite UK Group is VEKA’s largest trade fabricator in the UK and a long-standing member of the Independent Network and its predecessor Network VEKA. It offers a fully nationwide service based on manufacturing units in Northants, Peterborough and Greater Manchester as well as its South West distribution hub in Bristol serving South Wales and The West of England.