Overview

Holmlea Primary School in Glasgow (a grade B listed building originally designed by Andrew Balfour in the 1970s), closed its doors in 2004 and the site lay dormant for many years until eventually being bought by housing association and charity, Home Group.

Their master plan was to repurpose both the original school building and janitor’s house and incorporate much-needed affordable housing in the area. Consideration was taken to seamlessly integrate the new apartments with the historic school building and prominent features such as the school entrance, railings, balustrades were all carefully salvaged to preserve the history of the building.

Requirement

Works began to restore the school's interior and there was a requirement to incorporate seating and planters into the internal halls to create a relaxing social environment for students that still blended in with the aesthetics.

RailRoad seating and integrated planters from the modular solutions range were selected by Home Group, but materials for the products needed to be adapted in order to comply with the fire safety regulations within the school building.

Solution

Furnitubes replaced the standard iroko timbers (a West-African timber rich in natural oils ) with oak (a less dense and oily timber). The oak timbers were coated with a thick layer of Zeroflame fire-retardant treatment to comply with the fire safety standard requirement.

Outcome

The combined RailRoad planters and seating provides relaxed spaces for students between classes and a welcome modern contrast in the newly restored listed building.