Rooftop walkway at Ability Plaza with the City of London skyline behind, dark cladding enclosing the balconies below

Ability PlazaVitraBond zinc rainscreen recladdingHaggerston · London E8

Dmitro Facades recorded a rainscreen-cladding package for main contractor Procare Construction at Ability Plaza, an existing mixed residential and commercial building on Kingsland Road, Haggerston, reclad in VitraBond natural zinc panels through 2016 and into 2017.

01 · Ability Plaza's rooftop walkway, looking toward the City of London skyline, above the recladding.

At a glance

Package: VitraBond zinc rainscreen recladding
Location: Haggerston · London E8
Original building: Completed 2005
Main contractor: Procare Construction
Recladding: 2016 to 2017

Dmitro Facades recorded a rainscreen-cladding package on Ability Plaza, an existing mixed residential and commercial building on Kingsland Road, Haggerston, completed in 2005. Working for main contractor Procare Construction through late 2016 and into 2017, the package measured around 885 square metres of 4mm VitraBond VB5210 Natural Zinc rainscreen panels, rivet-fixed to aluminium support profiles and new insulated sandwich panels across the elevations.

Part of: Recladding packages across East London

Ability Plaza on the corner of Kingsland Road and Arbutus Street, Haggerston, its upper storeys finished in dark rainscreen cladding above white render

Ability Plaza's Kingsland Road corner, reclad in 2016-17.

Dmitro Facades' rainscreen package replaced exposed elevation elements on this existing 2005 building, working for main contractor Procare Construction.

Grey rainscreen cladding panels fitted in a jointed grid across an elevation at Ability Plaza, two windows set within the panels

Rainscreen panel cladding on one of Ability Plaza's elevations.

Delivered in the recladding

01Around 885 m² of 4mm VitraBond VB5210 Natural Zinc rainscreen panels, rivet-fixed to aluminium support profiles across the elevations
02418 m² of new insulated sandwich panels and additional SFS support studs, closing the wall build-up behind the rainscreen
03Breather membrane, fire barriers and horizontal firebreaks through the cavity, with black aluminium coping, flashing and corner forming
04Seventeen replacement windows, from 1.85 × 1.25 m to 2.3 × 1.25 m, refitted within the new envelope

Before the recladding

Ability Plaza was built in 2005, as part of a wider East London portfolio.

Ability Plaza was completed in 2005 with 101 live/work units, ten ground-floor commercial units and eleven parking spaces, developed by the Ability Group under Andreas Panayiotou as part of a wider portfolio of live/work buildings concentrated in Hackney and Islington, alongside the expansion of the East London Line.

In March 2007, G:res1, a residential investment fund advised by Grainger, agreed to acquire the wider 700-unit Ability portfolio. Ability Plaza remains part of Grainger's London rental estate today.

Dmitro Facades' rainscreen-cladding package, recorded for main contractor Procare Construction in 2016-17, is a later refurbishment of this existing building's elevations, not part of its original 2005 construction.

A glazed lift shaft and a metal-panel-clad tower at Ability Plaza, with the surrounding Haggerston rooftops beyond

The building's lift-shaft tower, clad in flat metal rainscreen panels.

Close view of a new window unit fitted within Ability Plaza's re-clad elevation

A close view of a window unit fitted within the recladding.

A brick residential tower within Ability Plaza's wider Kingsland Road site, its balconies screened in dark timber-effect panelling

One of the residential blocks within Ability Plaza's wider Kingsland Road site.

Ability Plaza, reclad by Dmitro Facades.

Kingsland Road, Haggerston, London E8

Delivered by: Dmitro Facades Ltd
Tender client: Avenue Consultancy
Panel system: VitraBond VB5210 Natural Zinc
Site owner: Grainger, via G:res1

Part of: Recladding packages across East London