Imperial War Museum (IWM) is Britain’s largest aviation museum. Duxford houses the museum’s largest exhibits, including nearly 200 aircraft, military vehicles, artillery and minor naval vessels across seven main exhibition buildings. IWM Duxford required a specialist glazing contractor to undertake glazing renovation works on the Sir Norman Foster designed American Air Museum Hangar.
Working alongside a principle contractor, Glazing Refurbishment were instructed to conduct the removal, repair and reinstatement of the existing curtain wall system.
The size and scale of the project required specialist planning for the project to be undertaken with safety at the forefront of the works. The glazing panels weighed in excess of half a tonne each and required removal from the existing curtain wall structure and transporting for off-site storage.
Throughout the works, a total of 1,200 square meters of glass was removed from the structure. To enable works, the Project Team sourced a variety of specialist access machinery including cranes and MEWPs to assist with the removal of the large glazed panels and steel mullion & transom details.
During works, vital conservation and restoration works were carried out to the aircraft whilst they were away from public display. To preserve the recently restored aircraft, the newly installed glazed units had an ultraviolet film applied to reduce the risk of UV sun damage over time.
