Prater and Lindner Facades, both part of the German Lindner Group, have delivered a complete roofing and facade solution for one of the UK’s most ambitious projects – the new Library of Birmingham. At an estimated cost of £188 million will be the largest public library in the country.

The new Library of Birmingham has been designed by Dutch architects Mecanoo and the main contractor is Carillion.

Prater then installed cladding with Kingspan composite panels and single skin cladding sheets, as well as capping to the perimeter roof upstands using its very own aluminum powder coated products. In total, Prater has waterproofed 7500 square meters of the library, which also includes an area on the ground level podium.

In addition, Prater has formed a bio-diverse roof garden on top of the finishes using soil, pebbles and old tree branches, to attract local wildlife and to offer visitors a pleasant environment to enjoy all year round.

Among its own scope of works at the site, Lindner Facades has installed the unusual and stunning façade for the Library of Birmingham. The building is effectively ‘wrapped’ in 8500m2 of unitised façade with a feature frieze of curved aluminum. The fifth and sixth floors are constructed using 3m wide, and up to 6.5m high gold anodized cladding. This cladding features again curved around the Shakespeare Memorial Room and Rotunda spotlight on the roof of the Library.

Moreover, Lindner Facades has supplied 1500m2 of steel framed ground floor glazing with soffits and a number of bespoke doors. While further refurbishment work has been carried out on the adjacent REP theatre, with approx. 600m of windows to the front of the building and 2,500m2 of cast glass channel façade to the new extension at the back of the building.

For further information please visit: www.lindner-group.com and www.prater.co.uk

photographs Christian Richters