Case Study Shangri-La Hotel - The Shard

The Projects

The Shard is already one of the most recognisable buildings on the London skyline and it is also the tallest building in Europe. The Shangri-La Hotel Group – based in Hong Kong – chose to occupy 18 floors of the Shard Tower for their first European venture offering both 5* accommodation and stunning 360° panoramic views.

Contract Descriptions

Requirements

Given the iconic and prestigious nature of the building the Shangri-La Group wanted only the best for the fit-out. A 45mm cement/sand based screed had been specified, applied onto a rubber-based resilient layer. There were a number of reasons why this specification would not work – one being that over 1,500 tonnes of screed needed to be pumped up an average of 43 no floors – pumping one day per week for 12 weeks! Given the capacity of standard pumps and the logistics of both the building and the site - this original specification was never going to be practical.

Solution

We had been laying liquid anhydrite (calcium sulphite) screeds for many years and knew that this material would be the ideal solution – the problem remained however – how to get it up to these high levels as standard (liquid) pumps could only pump to 20 floors or so. After much discussion - including design changes with architects -pumping solutions with specialist manufacturers, and programme and logistics issues with the Contractor, we eventually persuaded all concerned that use of an Anhydrite screed product together with a concrete pump and operator, delivered via a steel pipeline (incorporating a very complex temporary works design) would be the most practical and cost effective solution. We completed the works with great success within 11 weeks – pumping only 1 day per week, and installed in excess of 16,000m² in total (and 1700m2 (77m³) on the largest pour).