Waltham Forest Council’s new Wood Street Library in East London is using decorative column casings from the Pendock Radius range to conceal 23 interior structural concrete columns, as well as service drops for water and electrics.
Built by leading mixed-tenure developer, Countryside Properties, the new £420,000 library is a key part of the local authority’s £3 million investment and redevelopment of the surrounding Marlowe Road area, which includes new housing and the improvement of public spaces.
In addition to the column casings, perimeter casings from the Pendock Linea building linings range were also specified, which were used to cover voids and electrical cabling, while integrating with the library’s bright and modern interior design scheme.
Manufactured from pre-formed plywood, Pendock’s rectangular PLY-SQ column casings are finished in durable white laminate with contrasting satin grey joints and skirting collars. Standing 4.0 metres high, each of the 23 casings are manufactured to individual dimensions to meet the project specifications, which range from 250mm x 300mm up to 1150mm x 400mm.
The same white laminate finish is also used on the pre-formed plywood perimeter casings, which are installed along the full length of the building on the wall below the windows and are mounted on a rigid support framework for ease of installation and strength. The laminate finish on all of the library’s Pendock casings are designed to resist scuffs and damage in high traffic areas while requiring minimal maintenance.
Pendock’s technical projects manager, Gavin Byram, explained:
“As some of the concrete columns were particularly large and the client wanted to maximise internal space and floor area by minimising the casing size, our PLY-SQ column casings met these requirements perfectly. Also, the wide choice finishes available allowed a high degree of design freedom for the project’s specifiers and contractors, when considering how they would integrate with the library’s interior design scheme.”