Holmlea Primary School, Glasgow

The Project

Holmlea Primary School (a grade B listed building originally designed by Andrew Balfour in the 70’s), 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. Works began internally 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.

Challenges

Works began internally 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.

Our RailRoad seating with edge supports 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.

Project Solution

Our solution was to replace the standard Iroko timbers with Oak. The Oak timbers were coated with a thick layer of Zero flame Fire Retardant Treatment to comply with the fire safety standard requirement.

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

Products used