The multifunctional open courtyard space, in the Great Westerford office complex, needed an overall upgrade of the space and to make it fit seamlessly into the refurbished Great Westerford office complex.
The Landscape Architect proposed to demolish all existing built planters and remove old soil, gravel, planting and an old slate tiled walkway dissecting the space in order to start fresh.
The Landscape Architects design aimed to create a serene corporate environment with many opportunities for the employees in the building to sit on low concrete-clad walls to talk or just take a break from the office environment.
The Briefing from the Architect to World of Decorative Concrete, was simple, but the challenging part was in performing the work. Construction had to take place after hours and over weekends due to the fact that the clients were still active with their daily work.
Artevia polished concrete surface utilised for the central walkway and polished concrete claddings on the planter boxes and walls were chosen. The Artevia Polished allowed for a seamless high quality finish from the building to the courtyard and allowed a very thin cover over restrictions imposed by the existing walkway on a waterproofed concrete slab.
World of Decorative Concrete suggested to use normal grey concrete with 13mm Villiersdorp quartz as aggregate. The challenge was to install the product with almost no excess to the area, other than through the main entrance and the fact that installation had to take place on a Saturday. We decided to remove some sliding doors to allow excess for the concrete pump. Knowing that the polished concrete will most probably look different from normal Artevia Polished , in the sense of less aggregate.
This 40m Artevia polished concrete walkway and 180m concrete cladding, is an example of the upmarket value added by polished concrete vs other building material.
The end result speaks for itself.
The project met its design criteria fully and the space is utilised by many employees on a daily basis. The polished concrete used on this project will without a doubt offer many years of low maintenance usage in the Great Westerford office complex.
