The University of the Arts (Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design) moved into their new building in September 2011 and it would be fair to say they are more than happy with their new 2-Tier shelving system from Qubiqa.

The Museum had a major problem in that they had been given less storage capacity at the new site than they had originally anticipated. The area allocated was very tight, with limited space and some height restrictions, but the client needed a solution that would allow them to keep their collections intact and inhouse.

Qubiqa had already provided an Electronic E9000 system in 2006 to house the Stanley Kubrick collection at the University’s Elephant and Castle site, London. The Kubrick collection were delighted with the system and service provided and as they trusted Qubiqa’s expertise in the storage arena, the Museum and Study Collection asked Qubiqa to plan and develop a storage solution for the new building.

Qubiqa proposed their electronically powered 2-Tier storage solution, which is ideal for buildings with over 4.2m in height and tight spaces. The system would also act as a show facility for their artwork, while at the same time increasing the capacity to allow for future growth and providing two levels of storage with safe and quick access.

At Central St Martins’ previous premises in Holborn, storage had been in numerous rooms, spread across various sites and comprising mainly static shelving, some mobile shelving, wooden picture racking and plan chests. Items being stored included Paintings, Costumes, Books, Ceramics, Jewellery, Textiles, Prints, Videos and Films.

Qubiqa shelving can be configured to hold all sorts of different sized items and Central Saint Martins made use of a range of accessories to facilitate this, including Hanging Garment Rails, Textile Roll Storage, Picture Frame Storage and C Bars for hanging files.

Four staff work in the Museum/Archive, headed up by Judy Lindsay, Head of Museum and Study Collection. The 4000 students have open access to the collections and Judy is very happy with the very easy access and safe operation of the new 2-Tier storage system.

“The 2-Tier system met with all of our needs and far surpassed our expectations, allowing us to meet the capacity required.” Judy Lindsay found the installation team to be ‘second to none’, allowing her to make changes as the installation progressed and she found the sales team were also extremely helpful and always available to answer her questions. Qubiqa were able to take on board any changes requested and always completed these to

Judy’s complete satisfaction. Judy also appreciated the continued help and support through what was a very stressful transitional period. Judy feels that if it were not for the clever design of the Qubiqa 2-Tier storage system they would not have been able to operate in the small space they had been allocated. Also, it would have meant sourcing additional costly off-site storage or possibly to having to reduce the number of items stored in the collection.