Phoenix comes to life in V&A design triumph
The first purpose built design museum in Scotland opened its doors last autumn and has already celebrated its 100,000th visitor to the extraordinary concrete structure which comprises no less than 2,429 precast elements.
Designed to intrigue, within the 8,000m2 building none of its 21 elevations are vertical. Many of them are curved in two dimensions; with concrete walls up to 18m high inclining outwards at a variety of unlikely angles.
Commenting on the build, Project Architect Maurizio Mucciola at PiM Studio said: “In-situ concrete gave us the most flexible solution, combining technical ability with the freedom to create the shapes we wanted.”
Stephen Rodgers, area sales manager, said: “We delivered about 3,500 tonnes of Blue Circle Phoenix to supply the concrete for this project.” Phoenix Cement is factory manufactured Portland-Fly Ash Cement (CEM II/B-V 42,5N) providing lower embodied CO2 savings when compared to traditional CEM I cements.
“Phoenix was chosen to help reduce the heat generated during some of the larger pours and it was mainly specified due to its darker colour – in certain circumstances the concrete was pigmented to give an almost black finish.”
Stephen continued: “The statement shape of the V&A building is designed to attract and fascinate with its complex and intricate formwork. It’s an amazing feat of architecture and we are incredibly proud of our product and the part it has played in creating achieving this amazing feat of design and architecture.”
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