Sky - Leeds Dock

The “Sky” is the limit at Leeds Dock. Matt Grest from Sky stated that, “A workspace should be considered a productivity tool, not just a box to store your staff in, and this is exactly what we’ve got at Sky at Leeds Dock.” The architectural sun control DucoSun Ellips 200 mm, supplied by Contrasol, ensure the maximum amount of diffuse daylight. “The workspace is contributing to increased productivity across my teams.”

Contrasol was appointed by Mace to supply internal solar shading using DucoSun Ellips 200 mm profiles in the creation of a ‘Digital Centre of Excellence’ Northern hub for sky. A number of buildings were reviewed in Leeds leading to the selection and development of an occupation strategy of three buildings along the dock side.

Choosing architectural sun control

DucoSun Ellips is an external solar shading systems in which the aluminium louvre blades are mounted on the support structure. In this project, the louvre blades are fixed. The sleek lines of the Ellips louvre blade create a particularly attractive result. The elliptical louvre blades ensure the maximum amount of diffused daylight. They are available in seven sizes: 100 – 150 – 200 – 250 – 300 – 350 – 400. Here the architects BDG opted for 200 mm louvre blades.

Dynamic campus with a ‘tech start-up’ mentality

The architects BDG undertook the Cat A and B design of the new centre to accommodate over 700 staff in a total of 6,500m2 of space. The buildings were double height empty shells, previously retail units in a mixed-use development. Contrasol designed their system to work around and to facilitate the developed internal cores, new mezzanine floors, vertical circulation and flexible workspace creating a dynamic campus with a ‘tech start-up’ mentality, in order to attract and retain new staff from technology graduates to experienced digital delivery professionals. Matt Grey: “We worked very closely with the different parties over a period of months to design a workspace that would facilitate the way we wanted to do business, and I’m delighted with the outcome.”