Moxy Hotel Manchester City was constructed on the site of Invicta House, a building dating back to the 18th Century which had housed various businesses including a silk finishing factory. The original Atkinson Street façade was retained as part of the development, with the new section clad in weathered-effect metal rainscreen panels designed to resemble the punch cards of a Jacquard loom.

The Britplas design team had to develop a way of integrating steel Corten rainscreen panels onto the aluminium curtain wall which minimised run off of the Corten “rust” as well as preventing bimetallic corrosion.

In order to attain the required thermal values, construction was changed from a protruding concrete slab by utilising the AA100 curtain wall to run through each floor level. This was then adapted to use as a base for the Corten rainscreen panels, thus giving the façade the depth required by the architect and local planning authority.

The result was a building that remained faithful to the architect’s concept and passed the stringent requirements of local planning while performing to the required thermal, acoustic and structural criteria.