MAKEOVER OF THE MONTH A NEW CHAPTER
Inspired by Colchester’s rich historic past, the purpose-built student accommodation scheme Enso was designed to encourage social interaction and offer a sense of balance to students, through the creation of bright and airy interior spaces. Balancing this design brief with sustainability, Forbo’s Marmoleum flooring ticked all the boxes and more for Ekho Studio, acting as the grounding material that tied all the spaces together.
Delivered by Melberry Development Management and Moorfield Group, Colchester’s Enso is a purpose-built scheme, with a blend of flexible ‘together’ spaces and generous rooms allowing students to enjoy views over the city, meet, study and relax.
Ekho Studio was appointed to design and deliver the interior finishes across the central areas, with an emphasis on creating bright, airy and light-filled spaces that encourage social interaction and promote relaxation and wellbeing. The design consultancy was also tasked with creating the look and feel for the scheme’s 282 student rooms, devising a colour palette that would tie in harmoniously.
Rachel Withey, founding partner at Ekho Studio, said: “This was an incredibly special project for us, being the first student accommodation scheme we had worked on. It was fantastic to be a part of, especially considering we were given relatively free rein by the client – they were very open to doing something different and bringing a unique, contemporary and attractive identity to the space.”
For the project concept, the team took inspiration from a sense of place, with a particular focus on Colchester’s rich and historic Roman past. Nature formed the second thread, with the surrounding countryside full of strong textures and dramatic forms and colours.
Rachel explained: “Our chosen colour palette fused Roman-era references with local natural colours and was a real celebration of earthy, warm tones. We emphasised the toasty burnt oranges and varying shades of pink that cloud and streak the traditional earthenware material of terracotta.
“Forbo’s Marmoleum flooring was the perfect material to help hone and ground this aesthetic concept throughout the scheme. Its environmental credentials were also very impressive, with sustainability another key cornerstone of the wider project’s ethos and design. The more we looked into Marmoleum, the more boxes it started ticking.”
Marmoleum is Forbo’s own brand of linoleum, manufactured from up to 98% natural raw materials and independently certified as climate positive (carbon negative), from cradle to gate, without offsetting. Available in sheet and modular tile formats, Marmoleum is available in over 300 colours and more than 12 different structures.
Rachel continued: “Every corner of Enso has been designed to celebrate and help protect its environment. We used a variety of sustainable materials across the scheme, including recycled wallpapers, cork as a sustainable material for joinery and feature walls, living walls made from moss and terracotta tiles. Forbo’s durable, sustainable and natural Marmoleum fits in with this vision perfectly. In many ways, Marmoleum acts as the grounding
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material that links the spaces together, helped to achieve a flowing form throughout the interior.
“The incredible variety of designs and colourways available with Marmoleum was another box ticked for us, allowing us to select finishes that perfectly coordinated and enhanced our existing colour scheme. With an emphasis on encouraging social interaction through an open and flowing interior, the variety of colourways also enabled us to create little pockets of spaces and different zones.”
Ekho Studio specified a range of colourways across the scheme, including Agate, Granada and Oyster Mountain from Forbo’s Marmoleum Vivace collection, the manufacturer’s liveliest and most outspoken blend.
Speaking about the overall project, Heiko Figge, Head of Operational Asset Management at Moorfield Group, concluded: “Ekho Studio was responsible for the interior design, look, and feel of the development and we are delighted with the outcome, which captures a stylish and contemporary character while respecting the heritage and architecture of the local area.”
www.forbo-flooring.co.uk/marmoleum.
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