BT Three Snowhill

Designing a large office: tile flooring for Three Snowhill

Located at the centre of a vibrant business community in Birmingham is Three
Snowhill. This large and speculative office building was designed with high technical and sustainability requirements. For that purpose, effective collaboration between tiling contractor WBSimpson Midlands, and Mosa as tile manufacturer was required. Together, this has resulted into the achievement of extraordinary results.

Large office projects like this are important for Birmingham: it results in a massive vote of confidence for the city and future clients who are looking to invest in Birmingham and surrounding areas. 2/3rds of this massive building is occupied by BT (British Telecom) UK, with over 4.000 employees working at Three Snowhill.

Three Snowhill is already considered a distinctive landmark in the centre of Birmingham. To illustrate how large the building is: if we put two of Birmingham’s newest office developments together, Three Snowhill would still have 65.000 square feet to spare. With the objective to achieve a BREEAM Excellent, the requirements on sustainable materials for the Three Snowhill office tile flooring were high from the very beginning.

Mosa was approached regarding the large format porcelain floor tile specification by Weedon architects (Birmingham) and Sheppard Robson architects (London). For the project, they have specified Terra Tones floor porcelain tile collection in various large formats ranging from 90 x 90 cm, 90 x 45 cm and 60 x 120 cm. As Mosa is putting sustainability as its foremost priority, nearly the entire Mosa portfolio is Cradle To Cradle Certified Gold . That is also the case for the Terra Tones tiles, making them an excellent choice for the Three Snowhill office tile flooring.

Besides the Cradle To Cradle achievements, Mosa’s floor tiles were also chosen for their outstanding technical properties. Office tile flooring has huge foot traffic throughout their use, which is why certain properties are crucial for them. The PTV rating of all Terra Tones floor tiles exceeds the +36 value required for this commercial project.

WBSimpson Midlands was assigned as the office tile flooring contractor on this project. Mosa collaborated together with them and transported tile samples and all other technical requirements to the architects and the main contractors in the UK. Mosa and WBSimpson Midlands attended various meetings together to ensure the most efficient supply. Due to the magnitude of the project it was absolutely crucial to arrange timely deliveries to optimise the storage space and reduce the number of transport drop-offs as much as possible.

Thanks to this intensive collaboration, the project was completed on time by WBSimpson Midlands and Mosa. By working closely together, all sustainability requirements could be met during the installation of the flooring. All parties on-site were able to proceed without any issues or other delays.
The tiles in the Terra Tones series have a subtle, smooth, powdery finish and a vibrant look. This natural vibrancy can be enhanced by combining different formats. They are suitable for indoor and outdoor use on floors, walls, façades, and terraces.

Sheppard robson London; Weedon Architects Birmingham