Thanks to a £40,000 grant from the Foyle Foundation and a £38,000 Biffa Award, The Catalyst Museum in Widnes was able to replace all the glass in its fourth floor observatory with Pilkington Planar™. 

The Catalyst Museum is an interactive science centre devoted to chemistry and how the products of chemistry are used in everyday life. It currently offers family and group visits as well as educational tours.

Stephen Youd-Thomas, Catalyst Science Discovery Centre director, said: “We are extremely grateful to the Foyle Foundation and Biffa Award for their grants and also for the support we have received from Pilkington UK Ltd throughout this project.
“Their quote was very competitive and recognised our charitable status, as did their agreement to hold their original price for two years while our funding bids awaited approval.
“These new energy-saving units will help to keep the observatory warmer in the winter and will reduce excessive solar gain in the summer.
“In turn, this will enhance the visitor experience and increase the usefulness of the observatory gallery for a range of functions, from providing a more comfortable space for our popular Scout and Brownie sleep-overs to the possibility of providing a viewing gallery and visitor centre for the new Mersey crossing when work commences in the New Year.”
Pilkington Planar™, was used this build, to provide a flush glass surface by utilising stainless steel fittings housed in countersunk holes to fix the glass façade back to the structure instead of using the more conventional framed systems.
For more information on this product, please visit our website www.pilkington.co.uk/planar or for any information about The Catalyst Museum please check out their website http://catalyst.org.uk/about/about.htm