Overview & Scope
Student accommodation furniture specialist, Cubix, was contacted by Nigel Heinrich, the Property Liaison Officer for Thames Valley Police’s extensive state-of-the-art Training Centre in Sulhamstead, near Reading. Nigel needed assistance to design the contract joinery for the interior of a new study bedroom for 126 of their officer training bedrooms located within Imbert Court, a purpose built residential block on the Sulhamstead site. The site itself comprises of an impressive Grade II listed manor house, Sulhamstead House, surrounded by numerous contemporary training buildings and facilities including one of the most impressive firing range facilities in the UK.
After a comprehensive briefing meeting with the client and a detailed site survey, one of the experienced Technical Design team at Cubix started to work on producing 3D visuals of the new student accommodation furniture which considered all the practicalities of trainee accommodation such as a good sized workstation, plenty of drawer storage and a heavy contract quality cabin bed that would accept the weight and length of even the largest police officer.
The brief also required Cubix to propose a suitable heavy contract quality swivel chair to accompany the desk and this was upholstered in a mix of textile fabric and faux leather for ease of cleaning.
Design & Installation
All casegood furniture was supplied in Egger Denver Oak which is a contemporary style of a natural oak with smaller knots and a lightly planked effect. However, it is the distinctive colour that makes Denver Oak special. Its stylish rich graphite colour works well in unifying very dark warm tones with cooler ones. The warm tone of the purple carpet and co-ordinating window blind were reflected in the upholsteries that Cubix specified on the swivel chair which had a lighter Panaz textile upholstery to the back of the chair and a serviceable Panaz dark purple faux leather to the seat cushion.
The client employed the services of Berkshire based construction firm, MD Group, to undertake the wider £2.4M upgrade of the building and the project was delivered over six phases in line with MD Group’s refurbishment programme. Before each phase, one of the Cubix team visited the site to take final measurements for the student accommodation furniture to ensure everything was a snug fit. All the contract joinery furniture was clearly labelled and palletised by room to ensure a swift installation when it arrived on site. It was imperative to get rooms back on line as quickly as possible in this busy training centre for one of the UK’s largest police forces.
The finished bedroom casegoods have been very well received and have subsequently become the quality standard for bedroom refurbishments going forward for Thames Valley Police.