RMS for Girls Sports Centre, Rickmansworth

Architen Landrell were approached to design, manufacture and install series of large fabric offset barrel-vault panels mounted between lighting rafts within a sports and leisure hall at RMS for Girls (the Royal Masonic School for Girls), Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. The panels had to be easily demounted to allow access to the services behind, and use a tough, easy-to-clean technical mesh fabric with a high fire-rating. High light reflectance was also an important factor in the choice of the materials.

Architen were commissioned to design, manufacture and install a series of large barrel-vaulted ceiling panels within the sports and leisure hall at the Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

Consisting of Natte PVC-coated glass mesh fabric tensioned on to lightweight steel frames, the each panel is suspended between bespoke light rafts to form a visually undulating vaulted ceiling washed with light. The fabric is inherently fire-rated to BS 476 Parts 6 & 7 Class ‘O’, and so exceeds the safety requirement for a ceiling of this type in a public building. Each frame was roll-formed to shape, and finished with polyester powder coating. The panels were fabricated off-site and delivered as complete, assembled items to speed up the on-site installation.

As part of the ceiling it situated over a stepped seating area, coupled with the height normally associated with sports halls and gymnasiums, meant that specialist powered access equipment had to be employed to reach parts of the ceiling during installation.