Wintec  A Block

While not a large project, this project holds a fairly special place within Miller Design, given its unique design characteristics. The opportunity for this development came as a direct result of the design work Miller Design had undertaken with Chow Hill (Waikato) for Wintec G Block.  

A very early brief for A Block was to “remove a huge atrium canopy of the front of an existing building, then add a new three storey glazed entry atrium and ground floor glazing. [Thoughts are of] making it all angular to smarten up the building.”

In effect, Chow Hill wanted to create a sense of the 'crazy', through the use of angled mullions and transoms.

As is to be expected, the development had a budget price, but at the same time the design was quite unique, and not something often done. This creates something of a budgeting risk when entering into somewhat of the unknown with a quoted price.  However, Miller Design took up the challenge, and elected to use a 160mm stick system, effectively 'hinging' the mullions and transoms together to allow for the on site adjustments that would be required. In the end, given the amount of preparation that the project team undertook to ensure a successful installation, the on site installation went remarkably well, with few fishhooks. An added benefit of the final design was the structurally glazed aspect (rather than beaded), which improved the weatherability of the final installation given the small angled corner junctions.