Black Sheep Coffee, with its strapline of ‘leaving the herd behind’, it is leading the field in expansion, opening 30 stores in 2022, with a focus on speciality coffee and customer service. Founded less than a decade ago, the brand already has 40 outlets across the UK, including at the iconic, once-derelict Grade II* Battersea Power Station.

The chain’s owner Group Metropolitan has turned to Gilberts to create a discreet means of balancing adequate ventilation for the Battersea outlet’s kitchen without impacting on customers’ ability to relax and enjoy a coffee al fresco in the outside seating area.

A floor-mounted screen of 12no. AP50 acoustic panels enclosed behind a bank of 12 no. WGF38 factory-built flanged louvres minimises noise whilst directing the extract air (and associated odours from the kitchen) upwards away from guests and surrounding residents.

To accommodate the architecture of the external façade, the compact bank graduates from 1.5m to 2m along its 10.4m length, providing 50% free ventilation with noise modulation.

Group Metropolitan Contracts Manager Karolis Vigelis commented, “The design of the Battersea Power Station outlet’s exterior meant that although the concept was comparatively simple, getting the design right, to make it effective yet as discreet as possible, was more complex. The end result shows how it pays to think outside the box, not follow the herd!”

The WG38 is the smallest profile available in Gilberts’ louvre product range, developed over the years to provide a comprehensive package to keep pace with the evolution of building design and structural interfaces. It includes standard, high performance, site assembled and acoustic louvres, available in a range of ratings for weight, ventilation, weather, insects and even bird ingress. Even fixings can often be tailored to individual site preferences.

Innovatively, with its in-house design expertise, Gilberts has the capability to create bespoke configurations which can be both CFD modelled, and tested within its own laboratory to give customers complete ‘fit for purpose’ peace of mind.

Gilberts also offers a comprehensive range of PPC,PVF and PVF2 coatings across its louvres, available in any RAL colour, applied to louvres of almost any size.

Founded six decades ago, and still family-owned, Gilberts is the UK’s leading independent air movement engineer. It is unique in its ability to design, manufacture and test all products- including bespoke fabrications- in-house, to the extent it even designs and manufactures its own tools at its 140,000 sq ft head office and production facility.