The sedum on the extraordinary five-domed roof of whisky-maker Macallan’s new distillery and visitor centre will soon be sprouting green, blending the £100m building into the surrounding rolling landscape.
The curvaceous 207m x 63m glulam structure was engineered, manufactured, prefabricated and erected by Wiehag and it puts down another technical marker for the company and Austrian engineered wood construction in the UK.
The globally renowned distiller is as guarded about latest news, and photos of the project as it is about its whisky making process. But latest reports say it’s on track for its spring opening, which is no mean feat, given the complexity of the roof, which is due for completion this month.
The unusual structure, already dubbed a ‘cathedral to whisky’, was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour and demanded a range of engineering innovation from Wiehag. It’s the first time it has blended its LVL, timber and OSB roof decks with its glulam beams, a combination it now expects to use more in the future.
The roof contours, additionally incorporating a projecting canopy, also called for creative machining, according to Johannes Rebhahn of Wiehag UK, which, reflecting the company’s growing ambition here, opened a London office this year. “The distillery pushed the boundaries of what’s possible with glulam,” he said. “Beams are usually curved or straight. Here our Linz factory produced them curved, then machined to a facetted, kinked shape.”
The 200mm beams also have 2x20mm structural LVL cheeks either side, while the bottom face of the glulam core is bevelled to mirror the ‘organic hilly’ geometry’. The roof decks comprise LVL ceiling panels, softwood joists and OSB on top and in total cover 12,300m2.
The confined site also demanded a novel approach to supporting roof elements during construction, with conventional large scaffolding towers replaced by slim-line propping structures in blocked glulam.
The project redefined the term quick-build too, said Wiehag UK sales’ John Spittle. “We had a 26-week schedule to install 1,800 glulam beams and 2,700 roof deck elements. That meant a lift every 30 minutes on windy Speyside!”
Looking forward Wiehag says it has a ‘large volume of exciting UK projects coming through’, facilitated by its London office, including in new markets to complement its established strength in leisure, retail and education.
“We’re also finding an increasing interest in our prefabricated roof decks,” said Mr Spittle
