It has been said that Ian Stirling and Paddy Fletcher, the founders of Muckle Brig never set out to build a vertical distillery, but this nonetheless posed many challenges for the vertical façade which needed to comply with high fire performance requirements, which the tested and LPCB Certified Trisobuild system was able to meet, including the A2 reaction to fire criteria of the 40 metre façade height.

Port of Leith Distillery facility was a restricted small land parcel that required vertical architecture, and so the concept of a vertical distillery, or perhaps better described, ‘Gravity Distillery’ was conceived, and is possibly only the second such facility in the World, following the Mackmyra facility in Sweden.

The brief presented by Threesixty Architecture was to create a building that reflected the clients ‘ambition to present an exciting, modern face for the Scotch Whisky Industry and will encompass their core values of Innovation, Education and Openness’, the challenge however was to build a nine-storey or 40-metre high vertical tower, a significant piece of structural engineering adjacent to the harbour wall at Leith which would withstand the exposed environment, be practical to build and meet the stringent fire requirements of high buildings in the post-Grenfell landscape.

In addition to the main cladding specification, Building Systems UK also supplied support in the form of site audit inspections during the construction process, wind load and thermal calculations and complimented the system guarantee by the addition of Confidex for the Colorcoat Prisma external coatings.

Dare we describe this as an iconic building, well where else will you find a vertical distillery encased in a beautiful, bold and modern building, sitting on Leith’s waterfront, as a beacon for cruise ships entering the port, which can boast a Royal Yacht as a neighbour