Decorative architectural casings are now a common feature in contemporary building design as they provide a versatile, effective and stylish method of concealing structural steelwork, concrete support columns and building services
The combination of practicality, versatility and aesthetics have been at the centre of the wide range of projects undertaken by the Encasement Ltd, covering many business sectors including retail, education and healthcare, as well as hotel, sport & leisure and commercial refurbishment and building re-purposing projects.
Key to this project diversity is the number of options available to specifiers. These include several materials, as well as an array of finishes and the ability to select from standard shapes and sizes or create bespoke manufactured designs.
As a result, Encasement casings have been specified and installed by many well-known brands, including Porsche; TATA; Premier Inn; Kia Motors; Halfords and Tesco together with a wide range of retail outlets, hospitals, universities, leisure projects and office buildings across the UK.
The company’s products include the pre-formed plywood Circa and Quadra ranges, together with the Forma metal range. Alongside these, the Polyma GRP and Gypra GRG casings are moulded from glass reinforced polymer and glass reinforced gypsum, respectively.
The range is completed by Metza, which is a specialised solution for use with mezzanine floors that provides up to 2 hours fire protection to the floor support columns. Whilst all Encasement’s column casing are suitable for interior use, Polyma and Forma are also widely used for exterior projects, due to their inherent weather resistance and durability.
Available in aluminium or stainless steel, Forma casings can be specified as circles, with diameters from 250mm up to 1000mm, plus square, rectangular or hexagonal forms, as well as unique custom profiles. The choice of finishes is also extensive. In addition to RAL colour PPC coating options, numerous brushed, anodised, embossed and textured finishes are also available.
Durability and colour choice are also features of Polyma GRP moulded casings. This method of production allows a high degree of design versatility with shape; size and colour options all open to specification to meet bespoke project requirements, as well as standard profile options.
Projects, such as Kia Motors’ flagship London showroom, Premier Inn’s recently completed hotel in Cardiff Bay and Birmingham’s Dental Hospital, illustrate the versatility of ‘Polyma’ and ‘Forma’ column casing solutions and suitability for bespoke solutions.
Circa and Quadra plywood casings are designed purely for interior use and are manufactured from UKTR compliant sustainably sourced timbers. Within each range, circular and square profiles can be specified in a wide range of sizes, as well as extended circles and rectangular profiles that use additional pre-sized infill panels to give greater design versatility.
A wide choice of finish options is available with decorative high-pressure laminate (HPL) being the most popular. In addition to resisting damage, scuffs and scratches, HPL provides specifiers with an extensive range of finish options, including plain colours, wood grains and metallics, as well as textured and real wood veneers. Circa is also available as an unfinished plain casing for on-site painting and decoration.
Among the many Circa installations are Liverpool University, Gateshead International Stadium and Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal are major installations while typical Quadra projects include Farnborough College 6th Form Centre, Worksop Bus Terminal and the Dame Kelly Holmes Sports Centre.