Focus on health sector column casings
Although health has been at the front of everyone’s minds over the past 18 months, the healthcare sector has been a key user of Encasement decorative casing solutions for many years, to help improve the interior design and add to the patient experience whilst also concealing structural elements.
As hospitals and health centres are designed around the high volumes of people in foyers, reception areas and corridors, this requires decorative casings to be highly durable to cope with staff, visitors and patients, while also being easy to clean to maintain hygiene.
To achieve the required combination of durability, aesthetics and low maintenance, several of our column casing ranges are regularly used. The pre-formed plywood ‘Circa’ and ‘Quadra’ column casings ranges, with a tough laminated finish, are used for high traffic interior applications while the metal ‘Forma’ range and ‘Polyma’ GRP casings can be used in both exterior and interior projects.
Circa and Quadra allow circular, square and rectangular profiles to be specified while also providing a wide range of finish options, with the most popular being decorative laminates which have very good resistance to damage, scuffs and scratches. They also offer specifiers a diverse palette of finishes.
Strength, durability and colour choice are also features of the Polyma GRP range. As they are produced from moulds, a high degree of design flexibility is possible with shape; size and colour options all open to specification to meet bespoke project requirements.
Projects in health centres, care homes and special care housing utilise this versatility well, as the casings are specified with elliptical profiles to minimise the casing’s footprint and allow easy access around the casing when used in corridors.
Polyma casings can also be manufactured in a range of colours to not only integrate with the interior design but also help improve safety for people with visual impairments, by adding colour and contrast, where required.
Forma aluminium or stainless-steel column casings are also extremely versatile and can be specified in circular, square, rectangular or hexagonal forms, as well as unique bespoke shapes. A wide choice of finishes is available including PPC coating in any RAL colour, as well as brushed, anodised, embossed, or textured finishes such as Rimex.
Projects at Birmingham Dental Hospital and Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, perfectly illustrate the high degree of versatility within this range. In Birmingham, the decorative benefits of Forma are utilised in the building’s interior, with semi-elliptical casings concealing structural supports on the glazed façade, while at Northwick Park, Forma is used outside to provide weather-resistant square casings for the structural supports on the hospital’s new car park.