The brief

To provide a striking finish for a new 200-apartment scheme on Blundell Street, reflecting the distinctive rich industrial heritage of the Baltic Triangle area. Aliva has also designed, manufactured and supplied brickslips for Baltic View – another major residential tower project in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle district. The £24m nine-storey block offers a mixture of one, two and three-bed rental homes alongside basement car parking, a landscaped central courtyard, gym and commercial space.

What we did

Challenged to deliver a fitting façade reflecting the historic character of this pivotal location just south of Liverpool city centre, Aliva designed a unique corten-finished aluminium rainscreen cladding exterior. The project’s plot was previously a surface car park and Aliva was tasked to replicate an industrial profile paying tribute to both the location’s past and in-keeping with the nearby surviving warehouses. The striking Alucovering panels were designed and manufactured to suit the structural requirements of the building’s design and achieve exceptional performance. The bespoke system was composed of flat and vertically profiled panels at specific locations, with larger panels used at the communal balconies. To replicate the natural appearance of corten steel, Aliva applied an A rated polyester powder coated textured finish over the rainscreen cladding panels. A corten finish was also applied at floor levels in the internal courtyards. The rust stained finish creates an almost identical resemblance to natural corten. Despite challenges with Covid-19 impacting on the build programme, the project was successfully delivered in budget and on time for the client.

What makes it special

The finished exterior of the project is a key part of maintaining the historic vibe of this key cultural area. Using a corten-finish instead of traditional corten is more cost effective and removes the potential of staining. Together with the bespoke aluminium rainscreen system it also provided a consistent finish and seamless effect across the building.