Halifax Piece Hall, West Yorkshire

Insulead® Fixed SHAPED & STACKED - STEELYTE® OPENING CASEMENTS

The Building

Dating back to 1779, the Halifax Piece Hall was built as a Cloth Hall which acted as a hub for traders from all over the world. Due to the size and the prestige of the structure, the Grade I listed building is recognised as one of the most ambitious and outstanding Georgian buildings of its time.

The Brief

In 2014 The Halifax Piece Hall closed its doors for an extensive conservation and renovation project. Costing over £19 million, the two-year project was set to restore the existing architecture with the addition of an extension to create a thriving focal point for residents, workers, shoppers and tourists. Between 1971 and 1973, two fires and a gale destroyed much of the church adjacent to the Piece Hall. In 1976, all but the spire, steeple and certain walls were demolished. The plan was to save and incorporate as much of this historic building into the project which had served the people of Halifax for generations, into a modern new library building allowing it to serve the people of Halifax once again. Touchstone was approached by LDN Architects for help with the historic mullion and tracery windows. The main concern was the 5m rose window which dominated the Congregational Church. Made up from 81 individual shapes, a glazing solution was needed to help make the remaining windows including the impressive rose window as thermally efficient as possible.

The Solution

Touchstone’s patented Insulead system has been designed specifically to allow any shape or out of square window to be double glazed making it the perfect solution for the remaining stone mullioned windows. Due to the complexity of the rose window, it was individually templated by hand to make an accurate double-glazed unit for each shaped opening. Touchstone also used their Insulead system to double glaze the shaped windows and tracery elements on the remaining mullion windows of the Congregational church. Using Touchstone’s smallest lead section, each double-glazed unit offered only a minimal sightline of only 20mm.

The Response

The result was a sustainable and thermally efficient solution allowing the historic building to be a stunning centre piece for the newly modernised Piece Hall. The whole project was approved by Historic England and gained a coveted Heritage Green Plaque on its completion. Touchstone is immensely proud of playing a small part in this fantastic project.