University of West London
Synergia Projects Ltd
Main Contractor
- Synergia Projects Ltd
Completed
- 2024
Location
- St Mary's Road, West London
Works Undertaken
- Laboratory Furniture
The project
Research space at the University of West London's St Mary's Road campus, delivered in 2024 as a subcontractor to Synergia Projects Ltd. The brief covered a set of laboratories rather than a single room, so the furniture had to work as a consistent scheme across spaces with differing uses.
Benching is fixed, supported on pedestal units, which keeps the underbench space working as storage rather than structure. Alongside it the installation includes glass fronted wall cabinets, serviced height adjustable benching, epoxy edged worktops, mobile fume cupboards and a storage wall.
Height adjustable and serviced
Height adjustable benching sounds straightforward until services are involved. A bench that moves has to carry its power and gas to the point of use without straining connections at either end of the travel, which is a detail worth resolving at design stage rather than on site. Where a space is used by seated and standing users, or needs to be accessible, it is usually the right call despite the added cost.
Mobile fume cupboards
Mobile units were specified here rather than fixed ducted cupboards. That suits teaching and research space where the layout may be rearranged, and avoids committing duct routes through a building that is likely to change use again. More on the trade-off between ducted and filtered units is on our fume cupboards page.
