Global building product manufacturer, Sika, has transformed the basement of its Preston centre into a stunning training conference room. The five-figure refurbishment at Sika House includes an interactive showroom area where visitors can discover a range of top-quality Sika products.
The renovation project was a collaborative, in-house venture which called upon the experience and expertise of Sika staff from across the UK and Europe. Sika solutions were used to build and fit-out the entire facility.
Speaking about the new conference training room and exhibition area, which was officially opened in early September, Dragan Maksimović, General Manager of Sika UK, said: “This has very much been a project where all parts of Sika worked collaboratively to showcase the products, their individual expertise and application of our materials. It’s a great new facility, and well done to everybody involved.”
The conference training room has capacity to host up to 40 people. A breakout showroom area features products from Sika’s entire range of construction-based solutions, while augmenting the exhibition space are a series of interactive TV screens. These provide a useful information tool for visitors on the scope and availability of high-quality Sika products.
Staff across all levels of the Sika business played their part in the refurbishment. Architect interns took the opportunity to learn about the company’s products on a “live” project by proposing design concepts which included remodelling the floor plan, as changes were made throughout the build.
Preston builders, Walkers, carried out the refurbishment work, with Sika’s application teams – including visiting staff members from Sika Spain – installing the main internal finishing products. A micro-cement designer wall feature, one of the exhibition area’s architectural highlights, was built by the Spanish team using Sika Décor, a product launched by Sika Spain in 2015 and due to be launched by Sika UK in 2017.
The project was also an opportunity to showcase the newly-launched Sikagard® Hygienic coating 400 Series, a solution specifically for hygiene-critical environments and applied to the converted basement’s walls. In preparation for the installation of the Sika Flooring systems, the main floor substrate was levelled using the new Sikafloor®-300 Rapid Level, an extremely low emission cement-based, self-levelling compound which was used in conjunction with the seamless Sika ComfortFloor®, a smooth, low VOC, coloured elastic resin floor offering superb comfort, high levels of wear and noise resistance, and excellent crack-bridging properties.
The aesthetics of the facility is further enhanced by the design freedom of specifying ComfortFloor, allowing for a creative design finish to be applied using bespoke colour patterns throughout the space. The result of this Europe-wide team effort is a modern, attractive conference training room and showroom facility; a vital development hub for current and future Sika staff, and the ultimate public showcase for Sika’s unrivalled product range.
