Serving building access needs beyond cleaning | CoxGomyl

The most obvious use for your Building Maintenance Unit (BMU) is window and facade cleaning, but it is also important to look at all the building maintenance tasks which will need to be completed and consider what other functionality might be required.

A complete building access solution might also need to provide for maintenance tasks such as window or facade panel replacement, air conditioning and sprinkler installation or servicing, upkeep of vertical gardens or other architectural features, or it might need to include a material hoist capable of handling heavy loads.

CoxGomyl has extensive experience of providing access solutions for a huge range of buildings, taking a holistic approach which considers all the architectural features, the required cleaning cycle, and also the additional functionality of completing glass and panel replacement strategies, garden upkeep and any other relevant maintenance tasks.

Collins Square, Melbourne, Australia

This $2 billion development required a comprehensive building access system, not only for routine cleaning but alo to facilitate glass panel replacement. The main challenge was the shift in floor plan below level 27. This results in the facade stepping in on two of the four elevations. The BMU at roof level includes the distinguishing feature of a special self-approaching mechanism.

The cradle is equipped with a scissor type mechanism and stabilising counterweight. For the elevations above the step, the Building Maintenance Unit provides functionality for glass replacement with a dedicated glass-changing hoist built into the BMU.

To change glass in the areas below the step in, a monorail system was installed to the underside of the ceiling at level 27. A winch lifts a glass panel from the ground with support from the operators in the cradle and the panel is moved to the desired location for installation.

The Oasia Hotel Downtown, Singapore

This development is at the cutting edge of the trend for sustainable practices and in particular the rise of the building garden, which can often present new and unique challenges for building access systems.

The building benefits from an open structure, incorporating four verdant ‘sky terraces’ to serve as urban verandas, sheltered by a sky garden with an open crown instead of a flat roof. The innovation involved in realising this sustainable vision needed equally inventive access solutions.

The comprehensive access system included an access solution with a soft-rope restraint system which allows operatives to safely travel horizontally or even diagonally. This solution works with the complex design of the building and makes it possible to cross the open voids.

For access to the mid-level sky gardens we also provided monorail systems on the underside of the soffit. Finally, we installed a material hoist crane to service the continued upkeep of this vertical living tower.

As one of the only true end-to-end facade access providers in the world, CoxGomyl are ideally placed to design, engineer, manufacture and install access solutions to meet all the unique needs of any building.