Clients
Telehouse West, London
- Project - Telehouse West, London
- Main Contractor - MACE
- Architect - YRM Architects
Project Outline
Data centres are effectively warehouses used to centrally store huge amounts of electronic data for many different companies and organisations across the world. Safety and security of the stored data is obviously critical and therefore data centre buildings have to be designed to meet stringent standards for both security and fire integrity. Doors in any building are fundamental in ensuring fire safety and security and in the case of a data centre, never more so. Telehouse is at the heart of internet and telecommunications infrastructure, serving over 700 major customers worldwide. Their new 9-storey Tier 3 colocation data centre building in London's docklands will provide 19,000m2 of secure storage, and will be Telehouse Europe's flagship European facility when complete.
Scope of Works
The correct selection of door design and manufacture was very high on the client's agenda. Initially a lot of the internal doors were considered as a timber construction but further consideration and practical experience of timber doors in data centres led the client towards steel doors. The performance and integrity of fire doors made from steel are exceptionally high and have many advantages over timber fire doors. For example, steel fire doors negate the requirement for intumescent strips on the door, as when heated in a fire situation the door rapidly expands to close any gaps. Intumescent strips on timber doors are often located along the door edges which are the most vulnerable points on a door for damage. Avoiding the need for intumescent strips makes the door more durable and damage to intumescent is eliminated thus maintaining fire integrity.
The Works
ASSA ABLOY Security doors were selected for this project because they offered the best combination of fire performance, durability and security, quality and value. ASSA ABLOY Security Doors also met all the specification requirements of the project in terms of fire door size and configuration.Steel door types included singles, doubles, leaf and half and doors fitted with overpanels. Some large Powershield Fire doors 2.75m high were also required. Co-ordination of door hardware was also an important aspect of this project. Electronic locking for access control systems and Allgood hardware were specified and incorporated into the steel doors. Also, close cooperation with the design team enabled specialist threshold designs for bund details to be developed.
ASSA ABLOY Security Doors were also able to meet the demanding requirements of the build programme manufacturing, supplying and installing a total of 300 steel doorsets on time.
