Royal College Strathclyde

A Very Victorian Problem

The Royal College Building is Category B listed. Designed by David Barclay, the 190s, gargantuan 4-storey Italianate college is a monument to Victorian architecture. It houses the University of Strathclyde's Principal and Vice-Chancellor's residence, alongside various university departments and independent businesses.

As you'd expect, the entrance lobby is a grand affair and welcomes thousands of students, staff and visitors through its arched bays and up its curved marble staircase. But, with a Glasgow city-centre location and architecture pre-dating modern draught lobbies or revolving doors, Estates Services were losing a battle with the inclement weather. They needed to take control and prevent water from being traced into the building, making the subsequent tiled floor and marble steps slippery.

A Custom Approach

The University's Building Surveyor contacted INTRAsystems while exploring potential products in their ongoing experiments. After a follow-up call subsequent site visit, it was clear they had a design opportunity to create a unique Entrance Mat for a unique building.

With its listed building status, the Entrance Matting system needed to be true to its heritage as a technical college of engineering - practically perfect and sympathetic to the building's aesthetics.

Customised Chessboard Tiled Entrance Matting

We advised increasing the Entrance Mat from 4m² to 10m², the full width of the Polished red ashlar portico entrance bay and all the way to the marble staircase. However, extending the small matwell wasn't possible because of listed building constraints, so we suggested filling in the existing recessed matwell and installing a surface-mounted system with ramped edges.

Fine Details But Heavy Duty

We custom-made 380 x 380mm INTRAshape tiles, with a black anodised finish and combined them with INTRAlux Elite Black 608 and Grey 606 inserts, to match the existing chessboard, monochrome flooring tiles perfectly.

INTRAlux Elite has a high-density pile of coarse and fine polyamide fibres made from 100% Econyl (recycled plastics). They boast high moisture absorption (up to 5.4L/m²) and scraping abilities. The heavy-duty inserts also deliver durability, comfort and excellent sound absorption.

This combined with the modular INTRAshape system, meets the multi-directional traffic requirement.

A Perfect Match

Procurement partner and preferred contractor, Kirkton Flooring, managed the project with our support for layout and drawings, then Master Matting completed the install. First impressions were positive, and it's a marked improvement on earlier mitigation attempts.

"It looks fab thanks, just exactly what I imagined it to be like. Thanks for all your assistance and patience on this one, much appreciated." Building Surveyor, Estates Services, University of Strathclyde

Mastering Entrance Matting with Expertise and Innovation

INTRAsystems' specialist knowledge and proprietary products mean we can tackle any challenge of Entrance Matting. Whether you need a sensitive retrofit in a listed building or a contemporary new build system, we can match your Entrance Matting conundrum to enhance safety, design and first impressions.