Door Group, a unit of ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions UK & Ireland, has supplied the Royal College of Art (RCA) with a £485k bespoke door specification for its new Battersea campus, to allow for secure and compliant access control.
Designed by world-renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, the new £135m campus has been created to help develop the next generation of creative entrepreneurs, spearheading the art school’s shift towards a science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics-focused postgraduate university.
The 15,500 sqm building project involved a long four-storey studio building with workshops, teaching and exhibition space, alongside an eigh-storey research building for materials science, advanced manufacturing, and driverless car design.
The wide variety of rooms and working environments within the campus meant there were a mixture of different requirements – some areas were to contain high value equipment that need to be secured, others required doors that can withstand heavy usage.
Overall, the new campus required an access control solution that offered high security, and could handle a high volume of traffic, as well as meeting the standards required for fire and emergency escape door compliance.
With this in mind, Door Group created a specification tailored to the needs of the college, featuring around 320 doorsets including Powershield Steel Doors and SMARTec Timber doors, fitted with ASSA ABLOY Ironmongery, and installed by Comprehensive Carpentry Services Ltd.
Bill Nichols, managing director of Comprehensive Carpentry Services Ltd, explained: “The range of door sizes and ironmongery needed for this project was a real challenge, but the design team support from ASSA ABLOY was outstanding.
“They made sure the specification met all of the client’s requirements – something which many other manufacturers would not have been able to do.
“We found the system very easy to install, and the doors were also fire-rated, tested and certified where required, meaning the whole specification was compliant and offered a safe and secure environment.
Dr Paul Thompson, vice-chancellor at the Royal College of Art, said: “This wonderful new building embodies all that is best and most vital about the RCA – open, collaborative, interdisciplinary and bold. It will help the RCA to realise its ambition of bringing creativity, tech, fine art and innovation all together under one roof and these new facilities will ensure the next generation of world-leading designers, artists and creative entrepreneurs have all of the best possible chance to envision a better future for people and planet.”
