Futuristic and practical finish to the Loughborough university car park
(03/08/2009)

Façade specialists James & Taylor have won their own university challenge with a combination of silver and bronze Eyetech that adorns Loughborough University’s first multi-storey car park.

James & Taylor supplied 1,400m2 of Eyetech expanded aluminium mesh, anodised in silver and bronze. The cutting-edge material, which envelopes the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, provides a futuristic, yet practical finish to the university’s £3.5m project.

Adam Ball, regional sales manager at James & Taylor says: “The original specification was for a galvanised steel grill, but Loughborough University selected Eyetech because it was streets ahead aesthetically easy to install and cost-effective. We folded the Eyetech mesh to create crisp corners that enhance the material’s high-tech engineered feel.”

Colin Morgan, project manager at Loughborough University adds: “The new multi-storey car park is part of the University’s investment in a new building programme to update the campus, providing new state of the art facilities to enable world class teaching and research. Our vision was based upon previous knowledge of structures that have used the aluminium mesh, which provides a modern, fresh and open look to what can be a very ordinary-looking building.”

James & Taylor developed the Eyetech system in partnership with The Expanded Metal Company, the originators of the metal expanding process. James & Taylor recently won a contract to clad the new extension to ExCel London and the company is also using it on MediaCityUK, the BBC’s new northern headquarters in Salford.