Old Road Campus, Oxford University
Architect: Nightingale Associates
Contractor: Rees Flooring
Type of works: supply of Bizz and Pallas carpet tiles in Oxford office interior.
Excellent customer service and high-quality products have led to Desso’s carpet tiles being installed at Oxford University’s Old Road Campus, a major site of medical research and a focal point for cancer research and biomedical engineering.
Desso Bizz carpet tiles in a Charcoal colourway were installed throughout the office elements of the building, with Desso Pallas carpet tiles specified in various colourways to form “ghost corridors”, an innovative interior design technique to mark emergency exits in an open-plan environment.
“The motivation behind the ghost corridors was to provide a simple way of marking pathways in an open-plan office, while also linking the carpet tiles to the themes of the building levels,” comments Hannah Warner, Interior Designer for architects Nightingale Associates. “Each storey was colour coded, with the Pallas carpet tiles marking out an individually coloured path in the uniform Bizz background.”
“Originally we had specified another carpet tile manufacturer’s product, but our flooring contractor, Rees Flooring, suggested to Desso that they make a presentation. We were impressed by the colour match to the themes we had specified, and the value for money of the carpet tiles was impressive too. The contractor assured us that Desso’s customer service was excellent also, and we’ve since found this to be very much the case, both on this project and others where we have used Desso carpet tiles since.”
In order to fit with the specified themes of the different building levels, Desso supplied four shades of Pallas, a structured loop pile carpet tile with Teflon® anti-soiling protection, ranging from a Dark Cherry colourway through to a Light Fawn tone. The geometric style of the velvet cut-and-loop pile Bizz carpet tiles complemented the softer tones of the Pallas and the innovative interior design scheme of the office.
Graham Tillier, Sales and Estimating Manager with flooring contractors Rees Flooring said, “We recommended Desso carpet tiles to the architects as we’d dealt closely with Desso before and been very impressed. The company has an excellent sales and customer service division, who have always given us all the support we needed, and provided exceptional products.”