Situated in London’s coveted Piccadilly, Clarges Mayfair was designed to stand-out against the scale of the historic buildings of the surrounding streets with contemporary details and elegant craftsmanship. Featuring luxury residential apartments, the ten-storey complex boasts stunning views of London’s Green Park. Featuring a facade of Portland Stone, decorated with bronze balconies, and hand-carved columns, the grandeur of Clarges Mayfair called for an expertly engineered building maintenance system capable of delivering precision facade access without visual obstruction.

The stepped form of Clarges Mayfair required a building maintenance system that was capable of providing access to the entirety of the facade and return to a discreet parking position when not in use. The building, however, lacked allocated roof space and thus an alternative mounting position was required.

Cento Engineering, a key distributor of Manntech were called upon to develop a facade access solution capable of overcoming these challenges. Cento Engineering utilised a wealth of experience and expertise to develop a system of two BMUs including the world’s largest vertically mounted crane type Building Maintenance Unit. Complete with a multi-stage telescopic jib and outreach of 27.5 metres, the unit achieved 360 degree access to perimeter facades.

The design also carefully considered the future of the building with a 500 kg capacity lifting bar for facade and plant maintenance operations.

The engineers at Manntech and Cento Engineering cooperated closely with the stakeholder and building structural engineer to develop the building maintenance system within the weight of the building for seamless integration of the 36-tonne unit.

Cento Engineering were selected as the most experienced and established providers of custom facade access solutions with an extensive portfolio of experience to draw upon.