Flexxwall Cladding System

Spinlock is a world leader in the design and manufacture of fibre rope holding equipment for the sailing industry. Their components can be found on almost every high performance sailing craft built today.

Spinlock had been looking to widen the application of its technology and had identified the building industry as having scope. The company contacted Grimshaw on the strength of its reputation for experimentation with new materials and for its relationship with Billings Jackson, which would facilitate bringing a new product to market.

Billings Jackson convened a design workshop to explore the opportunities for using rope holding technology in architecture. Spinlock educated the team as to the advantages of fibres over steel. Fire resistance is better as are ease of handling, thermal stability and most importantly the grip strengths possible with no high strain fixings or special resin composites. UV degradation is not an issue due to a protective layer of fabric.

Early in the workshop process, Sean Billings proposed the idea of a suspended, cable stay glazing system. This would be a lightweight, elegant wall of glass using tensioned cables of fibres and the Spinlock Clutch fixing mechanism to support the panels. 

The demand was clear, in that the building industry seeks higher and higher quality, in shorter and shorter time frames. Architects, engineers, facade designers and design Installation firms are all under pressure to create unique solutions out of tested, pre-engineered products and few standard products meet these requirements. 

Notional sizes and typical bay dimensions were agreed and the concept was engineered with the minimum structure and a variety of fibre types. The brief was “to keep it light” and to allow the wall to move, absorbing the wind loads.  By allowing movement, the structure is reduced, resulting in a suspended curtain of glass with no horizontal structural fibres. 

BDA and Billings Jackson designed the glass shoe and glazing details, while TTI and Spinlock with David Dexter developed the fibres and clamping action. The prototype was built and further developed with GIG in Austria.