Axis Tower

Axis Tower was explicitly named to highlight its unique and central location at the AXIS point of primary transport links, Central Business District, famous shopping offer, and other key attractions of Manchester.  

An iconic residential tower, Axis Tower consists of 27 floors and is 89m high. Despite the height of the building, the footprint is relatively small, and access to the site is severely limited by road, rail, and canal networks. No building materials could be stored at the site and required all elements delivered to the building just before being fitted to the building. Such logistical constraints enabled HSHansen to offer a unitised and innovative approach for cladding the building. The site office was located away from the construction site, which made management far more challenging and careful planning very important.  

HSHansen manufactured the panels at one of its offshore production facilities and imported them in containers/crates (taking six weeks) into one of their UK storage facilities. From this facility, the panels for a specific planned install time were sorted and delivered to the site just-in-time, and then immediately installed on to the building.  

Despite the significant site and design challenges, the 52 weeks unitised installation work was completed by the site team two months ahead of schedule.