The new Riverside Museum in Glasgow features three key Parex landscaping mortars used for its vast areas of Chinese granite paving alongside the Clyde.
The new museum houses the former transport museum and documents Glasgow life down the centuries.
It makes extensive use of natural stone and granite hard landscaping carried out by Land Engineering Ltd using a system of hard landscaping products comprising Parex Easipoint Bond Plus, silo-supplied Easipoint Fine Bedding Concrete and Granatech. Tecroc CR Mortar was also used in the project, which was supplied via Forster Industrial Solutions.
More than 10,500m2 of granite paving were sourced, inspected and imported from China in a variety of sizes and in two colours – silver grey and dark grey.
When laid, the granite added about 30% to the total natural stone paving area in the whole of Glasgow.
Designed by world renowned architect Zaha Hadid to replace the old Transport Museum, the Riverside breaks the mould of conventional museums, from its dynamic exterior and open interior to the accessible outdoor spaces.
Land Engineering was contracted by main contractor BAM to undertake £4.5million worth of hard landscaping on the £74million project.
One of the key architectural ambitions was to create gradual transitions between hard and soft landscaping and to use undulating landforms to define areas for public use, rather than harsh and traditional edges such as kerbs and segregated pavements.
At the height of the project as many as 50 Land Engineering staff were on site at any one time. Their contribution also included the design and installation of parapet railings, the construction of 300m of coping on the quayside retaining wall and the installation of external lighting.
The construction of a misting water feature and granite bollard seating, the planting of about 90 silver birch trees and a selection of ornamental grasses completed the natural look envisaged by Gross Max.