Creative use of access flooring

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Jun 8, 2005

Creative use of access flooring from Quiligotti, part of the Pilkington's Tiles Group, helps grow Goldsmiths' international reputation as leading arts educator

has been employed by Quiligotti for a new building designed by Alsop and Partners for the world-renowned Goldsmiths College, part of the University of London, helping art students to display their work to best advantage.

The GBP 6.7m, seven-storey, Ben Pimlott Building has an industrial aesthetic to reflect the tough studio space within.

The building was developed in response to a growing requirement for purpose-built studio and teaching accommodation following rapid expansion over the past two decades.

Allied to this was Goldsmiths' need to retain its status as an incubator of international British artists.

Over the past few decades, significant numbers of graduates from its Visual Arts Department have achieved international status - five winning the Turner Prize.

Three sides of the rectangle are clad in silver-coloured metal with punched windows for daylight and ventilation, while the north elevation is entirely glazed to flood the building with natural daylight and reveal the unique mix of studios and digital media and scientific research laboratories inside.

The top four floors are primarily dedicated Visual Arts studio space, with seminar rooms for teaching purposes.

These are lined in ply with exposed concrete soffits.

The space is defined by free-standing partitions that carve up the open studio floor plate to create individual work areas.

These are designed to meet the requirements of each academic year and the needs of each student as appropriate to their studio practice.

The raised floor system by Quiligotti, part of the Pilkington's Tiles Group, uses inexpensive particleboard panels that can be exposed to paint, scuffing and other inevitable marks of student activity, then easily lifted and replaced.

This approach by D and B contractor ISG InteriorExterior plc, who deliver intelligent solutions for new and refurbished landmark buildings, also future proofs the 3,600m2 building by allowing for the updating of IT services.

A QS consultant to Alsop had used Quiligotti's access flooring before and suggested it as a "very economical and adaptable" solution to the requirement that floor panels should be easy to replace if required.

Two different systems have been used in the Visual Arts studio space.

The three lower floors feature Quiligotti's Microfloor 600 (600x600mm) high-density particleboard panels with steel pedestals to achieve a service void of between 70mm and 524mm.

This is covered by carpet and timber as well as other finishes to provide a purely functional system.

In the studio areas, unfinished, moisture-resistant, high-density particleboard panels were extended to 1,200x600mm because the university did not want to create a strong grid effect that would detract from the students' work.

These panels, which are easily removed using a Microfloor slim key, have been simply painted and are used as the floor finish.

Alsop project team member Elke Zinnecker said: "The fact that Quiligotti were prepared to do these larger sizes has helped to achieve the overall effect we wanted".

"They are heavy and stable enough for the students to fix onto them and still easy and inexpensive enough for the College to replace if required.".