Oxford University - St. X

Caribbean were approached by main contractor, Elliott Thomas, on the second phase of this multi million pound refurbishment of St. Cross Law Faculty which would see it transformed and brought up to 21st century standards, mirroring the style of the world famous Harvard Lecture Theatre. A major part of the refurbishment works was to remove the existing two skylights and replace them with one much larger double pitched seamless glazed rooflight to flood the new lecture theatre with natural daylight. This glazed rooflight, which measured more than seventy square metres, was to be completed with external solar shading to prevent summer (and winter) overheating and diffuse harsh light, eliminating glare.

A shading project of this size and complexity requires a specialist supplier and after a full on site consultation, where every conceivable element of this project was discussed including the shading system and most importantly how such an installation would take place, Elliott Thomas enlisted Caribbean as their specialist sub contractor to undertake the work.

Working closely with Elliott Thomas, we provided detailed plans of fixing locations and requirements so when the steel structure which would support this seamless glass roof was being fabricated, appropriate supports could be positioned to allow the safe attachment of the roof blinds.

In total we installed 7 of our Cayman model tensioned exterior roof blind systems, with the largest measuring 18m² which extends in less than 60 seconds from closed to fully open. The headboxes were positioned to the bottom of the glazing to offer edge protection as required by the brief, with the blinds running up the glass. Our lateral guides feature fabric cover rails, which ensure there is no light leakage between the edge of the fabric and guide, an important element when positioning several blinds together. Operation was linked into the AV equipment with a wirefree transmitter as a backup/master for when the AV equipment is locked away. Most importantly a dimout screen fabric with 4% openess factor was utilised with a low solar energy transmission (g-value total) to prevent unwanted solar heat gain and eliminate harsh light.