Award-winning 2016 scheme was designed with PLP and built by Mace

A flagship building designed by Amanda Levete’s practice AL_A for broadcaster Sky in west London is having to be repaired because the roof is leaking.

Called Sky Central, the £220m building, built by Mace, was completed in 2016 and has been showered with a host of accolades including the BCO’s corporate workplace and Best of the Best awards for 2017.

In its citation for the Best of the Best award, the BCO said: “Sky Central defines a new model for the industry’s fast-paced and evolving future. The project exudes collaboration at every level and has achieved excellent post-occupancy results.”

Designed with PLP as delivery architect, it can fit around 3,500 employees and has been described as the centrepiece of the broadcaster’s 13ha media headquarters in Osterley.

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Hundreds of rooflights have been fitted into the flat roof to flood the office space below with light

But Building Design’s sister title,Building, understands the 41,000sq m building’s flat roof has been plagued by a series of leaks. Mace is now set to start repair work later this year.

The roof includes more than 400 roof light panels with the roof itself supported by miles of laminated timber beams.

Mace has already gone out to the market to find a contractor to begin work shrouding the three-storey building in scaffolding. The cost of that job alone is understood to be at least £15m.

One source told Building: “You don’t spend that much to do five grand’s worth of work. Otherwise, you go up and repair the roof yourself. This is a big repair job and it’s a big insurance claim.

“They put a lot of rooflights on the roof to flood it with light inside. But flat roofs have a tendency to leak and it has a huge amount of rooflights and every one of those will have a weak point which will be made even weaker on timber which tends to expand or contract more than concrete or steel.”

最初工作的屋顶承包商是Lindner Prater，而参与该方案的其他人包括结构工程师Arup和QS Aecom。

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The building has been described as the broadcaster’s flagship at its Osterley campus

Derby firm B&K Structures also worked on the project, supplying and installing 7,500 linear metres of glulam beams and just under 16,000sq m of large timber roof cassettes with pre-installed gutters.

根据其网站，B&K称选择木质磁带是因为它们能够降低空中声音，这被认为是必不可少的，因为该建筑位于希思罗机场的航线之下。

As well as office space, Sky Central also includes studios and production facilities together with research and development zones and an energy centre.

AL_A and Mace, which was main contractor on the scheme, declined to comment.

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