Macallan Distillery Visitor Centre

Flowcrete UK’s wide range of specialist screed and resin flooring solutions was utilised by the international spirits group Edrington to make The Macallan’s new, £140 million distillery an architectural masterpiece.

Designed by architectural practise Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the distillery consists of five cells that seamlessly blend into The Macallan’s traditional Speyside estate as undulating, green-roofed earthworks. Four of these would house the brand’s production operations and one would be the visitor centre. The industrial elements of the site were provided with Flowfresh HF LT, while the new centre utilised a range of decorative resin flooring solutions.

To begin with, 3,669 m² of Isocrete K-Screed and 4,890 m² of Flowscreed Industrial Top were used to create robust screed layers that would provide level and reliable platforms for the resin finishes.

The main internal tourist routes and viewing gallery were coated with the fast curing, methyl methacrylate (MMA) resin floor topping Flowfast Quartz Structure. This system combines decorative colour stable quartz granules in a clear resin binder to create a durable floor with an attractive, textured finish. An urban, dark grey colour was chosen to match the industrial tones of the distillery. The Flowfast Quartz Structure was even applied on the innovative suspended walkway that runs across the top of the distillery’s large tanks.

Areas that are usually just functional spaces have been reimagined into visually stunning works of art. This is true of the barrel room (or cave privee), where the sherry cask maturation of the distilled spirit takes place. This has been turned into a private cellar that displays each cask like a gallery, putting the visitor in the centre of a semi-circle of back-lit barrels. 303 m² of the self-smoothing epoxy system Peran SL in a glossy black finish was applied to create a sleek and reflective floor. 745 m² of Isocrete Isopol SBR was applied in this area to produce a reliable and durable polymer modified wearing screed for the Peran SL to lay upon.

The bonded gravel system Naturewalk was used for the distillery’s external perimeter walkway. Naturewalk is a seamless, slip resistant coating designed to reflect the natural beauty of the outdoors. This combination of properties was ideal, as it would tie into the site’s aesthetics and ensures a safe finish able to survive heavy foot traffic and the weather.