Union Jacks

Union Jacks is Jamie Oliver’s latest high-street venture which aims to celebrate British produce in all its glory. He’s joined forces with award-winning American chef and artisan dough-maker Chris Bianco to develop a concept that combines Bianco’s technical skills with Oliver’s love of high-quality, locally sourced ingredients.

The first Union Jacks site is set to launch in the Renzo Piano-designed Central St. Giles development later this month. The 3,811 sq. ft. site will open alongside hamburger chain Byron, Brazilian barbeque restaurant Cabana, and high-street Italian group Zizzi. Inside, milkshake-pink fittings are contrasted with retro 1970s

television sets and checked upholstery that could quite easily have been ripped from a VW camper van.

The main challenge from our perspective came from the two wood-burning ovens used to bake the flatbreads. These ovens cook at a very high temperature, so the extracted air has to be cooled rapidly before it can enter the filtration systems. Because the plant space at Union Jacks was so limited, we designed a unique diffuser to draw in cooler air and thereby reduce the ambient temperature inside the duct. From there, the air passes through Electrostatic Precipitators and Ultra-Violet filtration systems to remove all perceptible traces of

grease, smoke and odour. The only available extract point at Central St. Giles is a low-level louver discharging directly into the public piazza, so ensuring that the emissions are sufficiently odour and smoke free is incredibly important. But by installing the right products and with the right technical knowledge, we’ve successfully handed over on time and in budget.