PUBLIC SECTOR


ZONING IN AT SCHOOL


Using flooring as a way to create zones or wayfinding is currently one of the biggest trends in retail, office and public spaces. Now, Sharni Verity, Marketing Executive at Heckmondwike FB, looks at the reasons for the rising popularity of zoning in education environments.


With an increasing trend towards open plan spaces in schools and colleges, zoning is becoming an ever more popular way of providing demarcation, particularly as it means partitions or barriers are not needed.


Fibre bonded carpet within Heckmondwike’s extensive range is being used in bold bands of colour to create aesthetically-pleasing interiors, whilst marking out areas for specific purposes. This is proving to be a simple way to engage young people and enhance the learning environment, whilst at the same time effectively communicating to pupils what the purpose or expectation is in a specific area.


Studies carried out across seven primary schools in Blackpool by the University of Salford and architects firm Nightingale Associates showed that school layouts can influence a child’s development by as much as 25%, both positively and negatively, over the course of the academic year.


In this research, classrooms were rated for quality on 10 different environmental factors, such as natural light, shape, colour, temperature and acoustics, as part of a study into the impact of design in the learning environment. Following this survey,


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there was wider adoption of zonal techniques within schools and an increasing trend towards greater use of colour.


Fibre bonded carpet is ideally suited to the purpose, as it can be cut and shaped to create zones, without running risk of it raveling and fraying. And, with a wide choice available, specific colours can be selected to reflect a building’s purpose or corporate branding.


Take, for example, Malcolm Arnold Academy in Northampton. Here, Heckmondwike’s Supacord fibre bonded carpet was used in different colours and designs to separate adjacent spaces from a visual point of view – such as a seating area next to a high-traffic walkway. This helped to define the purpose of various spaces within the school and create a visually appealing interior environment.


Similarly, at St Leonard’s Primary school in Banbury, Supacord carpet tiles were specified in the school’s colours of red and grey, creating learning zones and break-out areas along their long corridors. The use of zoning in this case is reported to be achieving its aim of providing a stimulating and enjoyable learning environment, as well as helping to raise attainment levels.


And this technique is not only having a positive effect in schools. Commercial


environments too are benefiting from the effects of zoning. In the same way as schools, businesses are finding that open plan office spaces can easily be divided into designated departments or functions due to the colour and nature of the carpet. Take, for example, the Wallis Building in Nottingham’s Lace Market. Here, zoning has been used to create specific work spaces to attract high-tech IT and technology-based businesses to locate to the centre. The developers, Bildurn Properties, specified Array Fibre-bonded carpet tiles in an attractive lime shade, which was complemented by Broadrib in Willow. The developer felt that the use of Array and Broadrib helped them to create a “fresh, dynamic and appealing working environment for aspiring entrepreneurs”.


So, these days demarcation is less about barriers, partitions and walls, but more about colour and carpet. Through clever use of zoning techniques, specifiers and interior designers are creating aesthetically pleasing interiors for educational and commercial spaces with dedicated areas clearly identified for specific purposes, but which still ‘flow’. As studies have shown, this is having a very positive impact on workplaces and educational environments.


www.heckmondwike-fb.co.uk www.tomorrowsflooring.com


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