Location: Esther Simpson Building
Design: Bedrock Design
Sector: Education
Scope: Furniture Solutions
Project Overview
We were invited to tender through the NEUPC contract to supply furniture for the café and atrium spaces in the Esther Simpson Building, a new build for University of Leeds, Business School, the School of Law and central teaching space.
We worked closely with the University of Leeds and their in-house interior designers along with Bedrock to provide furniture for the ground floor open plan café along with key atrium spaces and a number of meeting rooms and staff break out areas.
Key Challenges
Discreet integration of power whilst retaining the mobility of the tables was a high priority and we worked together to provide a satisfactory solution.
Our Solution
The café space is divided with tall mobile planters creating different zones and a good degree of privacy. Central high capacity dining tables are mobile with stacking chairs allowing the space to be cleared for events. There is a mix of soft seating with low bamboo sofas contrasting with large wing back seating. Banquette seating is combined with more intimate table settings again giving visitors a wide choice of how they want to utilise the space.
The Atrium spaces provide different settings for students and staff to use and are an effective and innovative use of the in between spaces in the building. Staff and meeting room furniture have informal soft seating mixed with comfortable meeting chairs and tables. We successfully integrated recycled furniture into the scheme and proposed UK manufacturers, wherever possible, that give credence to providing sustainable products.