Caffe Nero and the Brass Facade

The soffit and fascia’s was key to the overall aesthetic appearance to the new Caffe Nero. The sweeping soffit in 1mm Aurubis Nordic brass was traditionally formed in a single lock welt which extends from the impressive entrance, inside to form the ceiling of the coffee shop and then continues outside to form the rest of the soffit.

It was difficult to marry the lines through the building and cut it on the rake. Another difficult detail was continuing the hard lines through past the abutments with the curtain walling system in order to maintain the aesthetic appearance.

There is a secret gutter detail formed in Aurubis Nordic Brass that was hand formed on site, again to maintain an incredibly high standard of finish throughout. The roof was built to the different pitches which were all hand formed on-site.

The 1mm soffit details were all formed off-site at Longworth’s workshop and later assembled on-site. This method allowed our craftsmen to form the Aurubis Nordic Brass to exacting measurements and maintain a high level of quality.

The thickness and quality of the Aurubis Nordic Brass required the use of electric shears to hand cut the various sections for the roof details. The hand formed secret gutters had many folds and joints which required skilled and experienced craftsmen to create in order to realise the architect’s vision.

Longworth’s in-house design team and workshop were used extensively to reduce the amount of time required on site. The roof panels were longer than the manufacturers recommended maximum length, Longworth’s design team set out the panels for the roof to overcome the issues with their lengths. A decision was made by Longworth’s senior management team to pre-fabricate all of the soffit panels off-site at their workshop.