Royal Arsenal

Berkeley Homes choose GENEO for £1m landmark project

Astraseal Commercial completed the latest Waterfront phase of Berkeley Homes’ landmark Royal Arsenal Riverside development in Woolwich using windows and doors fabricated in the innovative REHAU GENEO 6 chamber fibre composite system.

Berkeley Homes switched to REHAU GENEO from the aluminium and timber composite systems which had been used on the earlier phases of the project because REHAU’s commercial team were able to work with Astraseal to convince them of the thermal, acoustic and security benefits of the Passivhaus certified and fully recyclable GENEO window system.

The 86mm GENEO system is among the most energy efficient profile systems available - with U_w values from 1.1 W/m²K for low energy houses to 0.73 W/m²K for Passivhaus installations without the need for high specification glazing.  It also offers break-in protection up to resistance class 2 without reinforcement and class 3 with reinforcement, and sound insulation to class 5 without steel reinforcement.

One of the key factors for Berkeley Homes was that the REHAU GENEO system has slim sightlines of just 115mm, replicating the look of aluminium and giving residents of the £440,000 - £750,000 apartments almost uninterrupted views of the Thames.  It also has inherent strength because it is extruded using the RAU-FIPRO^® fibre reinforced composite material which is similar to material used in aircraft construction and Formula 1 race cars.  This means it could be used to fabricate windows and doors at Royal Arsenal Riverside with full height glazing up to 2.3m and full widths of up to 1.2m without the need for steel reinforcement.

Specialist commercial fabricator Astraseal installed 660 windows and 124 doors on the project, as well as working on other elements which would not normally be contained within the window package in order to give the client a ‘one stop shop’ supplier solution.  This included aluminium cloaking of reveals, soffits and the underside of balconies.

All of the window and doors were finished in smooth Anthracite Grey on the exterior and white on the interior to match the finish of the aluminium frames used on the earlier phases of the development.