Pastel pink and blue may be the traditional colours for little girls and boys but when they were specified for the windows and doors – plus some round windows – for the new Mulberry Bush Nursery in Bury, the result was anything but traditional.
That was no problem for Grosvenor Windows because, having its own in-house spray shop and working with trade fabricator The Glazerite UK Group Limited, the Bolton-based installer was able to come up with the exact RAL colours, plus 7016 Grey, as well as round frames with Fully Reversible function, all based on the acclaimed VEKA Matrix 70mm profile.
The result may look a lot of fun but getting the specification exactly right was a serious matter, according to Grosvenor contract manager Lauren Wilcox: “We pot-tested all the paints to make sure of a perfect colour match. Wind loading calculations were needed for a first-floor balcony with 2,200mm high glass panels, the glass was 6mm toughened to withstand impact and of course all opening windows had restrictors, including the round Fully Reversibles.”
The unit is the fifth Mulberry Bush Nursery but the group’s first new-build. The striking contemporary styling is not only aimed to follow the group’s ethos of making the design child-focussed but also to make the most of its very visible location, as director Andy Robinson explained:
“We are only interested in running outstanding nurseries so when we had the chance of building one from scratch we wanted it to be visually outstanding as well. The site is at the entrance to a large business park and close to a 300-house private estate so there are obvious benefits to being noticed.”
Grosvenor was chosen on the strength of past work with the main contractor SD Woodcock. Design for the project was by Fuzion. As well as curtain walling, Grosvenor installed in total 43 windows, seven sliding patio doors, five single doors and one French door, all in the various colours, with the pink colour-matched to translucent Rodeca cladding, which was used extensively in the construction.