Highlight of the Month – Belfast Grand Central Station

Architecture meets safety: New roofing for Belfast Grand Central Station

As the capital of Northern Ireland, Belfast is a city steeped in history. As well as being the birthplace of the famous RMS Titanic, the city – and the region as a whole – is best known for the Northern Ireland conflict, a civil war that lasted for decades. Although the armed conflict came to an end in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement, the peace achieved has been shaken since Brexit. This makes the construction of the new Belfast Grand Central Station all the more significant; it has already gone down in the country’s history as one of the most significant public infrastructure projects. For Belfast’s approximately 350,000 residents, the building not only provides a central transport hub where the railway station, bus stations and active transport converge – it is also seen as a symbol of unity and civic pride. The building’s distinctive form reflects this. The Kalzip aluminium standing seam roof system used here ensures the necessary performance, flexibility and aesthetic precision.

Dynamic and open

The building’s design was developed through a collaborative partnership between various architectural and engineering firms: RPP Architects, John McAslan + Partners and Arup contributed their expertise in architecture and engineering, whilst the Farrans Sacyr joint venture (FSJV) carried out the complex construction work. Viewed from the side, the new central station building is reminiscent of 20th-century factory halls. The roof landscape, covering a total area of more than 12,000 m², is a defining architectural feature of the new transport hub. The roof surfaces, each tailored to specific building functions, do not run in straight lines when viewed from above, but converge in an arrow-like shape. The individual roof zones thus convey both movement and openness – characteristics that are of central importance to the project’s identity as a gateway to the city. Kalzip’s precision-manufactured profiles enabled the seamless realisation of these complex geometries and ensured flowing transitions and an uninterrupted visual rhythm across the entire building envelope.

Safety first

Thornton Roofing (Ireland) Ltd was commissioned to design, supply and install the roof and soffit systems. Adam Thornton explains that this task involved more than simply implementing the architectural design: “For a project of this complexity, the design team required a roofing solution that met stringent performance standards, including strict fire, explosion and weather resistance criteria. At the same time, the system had to ensure visual consistency across a vast and geometrically varied roof landscape. Kalzip’s lightweight, non-penetrating standing seam system offered the ideal balance.”

Working closely with Thornton Roofing and the design team, Kalzip’s technical specialists provided detailed support throughout the design and supply process. The project required extensive coordination to integrate concealed, insulated guttering systems, bespoke brackets and enhanced fastening devices to meet the site’s explosion-proof requirements. The flexibility of the Kalzip system made it possible to incorporate these performance enhancements without compromising the appearance or the design intent – a testament to the system’s adaptability under demanding technical conditions.