Glass manufacturer comes home for historic orangery rebuild
10th November 2015

St Helens in Merseyside is not only the historic home of PILKINGTON, it is also the location of The Mansion House, originally a grand Victorian house but now a regional headquarters of Age UK and more recently the scene of the reconstruction of an equally grand timber orangery including 460sq m of glass.

A major part of a £3million restoration of the Mansion House was to re-instate the orangery that originally adjoined the house, but which had been replaced by a metal framed modern glass house which lacked the aesthetic appeal of the original. Reconstructing the Orangery posed a particular challenge as there was a lack of photographs of the Victorian original, so the team at the architect visited a number of other grand buildings around the North West constructed in the same era to guide the design.

For the roof, units were made up of an outer layer of Pilkington Activ SunShade Neutral solar control, self-cleaning glass and an inner pane of 8.8mm Pilkington Optilam Therm S3, consisting of two sheets of glass laminated together with an interlayer for strength and impact resistance. The inner pane also featured a low-e coating.
For the vertical glazing, 6.4mm-thick Pilkington Suncool Optilam toughened glass was used, featuring high-clarity Pilkington Optilam Clear glass.

Phil Savage, commercial contracts sales manager at Pilkington United Kingdom Limited, said: "The client wanted to recreate the appearance of a traditional Victorian glass house, but benefit from the advantages of a modern building, and the glass we supplied has played a big part in this.

"For the roof, the units we supplied deliver an excellent combination of thermal insulation and solar control, reducing the need for artificial heating in winter and air conditioning in summer. This will ensure the space is usable and inexpensive to run all year round.

“The roof glass is also self-cleaning, which will help keep it looking close to pristine without the need for constant cleaning."

Mark Lunney, chief executive at Age UK Mid Mersey said: "The Mansion House is an important revenue generator for us, and the stunning new orangery allows us to offer superb facilities to deliver much needed support to our older clients. As a social enterprise, all surplus income generated, is reinvested into ensuring people can love later life. Customers, both visitors stopping for a visit to the Bistro café, or those looking to hire out the space for weddings and other functions, help us achieve this. It’s something truly unique in the region.

“The project has been finished to an extremely high standard and the high-performance Pilkington glass makes an appreciable difference in terms of maintaining a comfortable climate inside the space, whatever the weather is doing. Something that is a huge help when running a business like ours."

www.pilkington.co.uk