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3. April 2024St. Edwards School – Suspended ceiling as the crowning glory
St. Edwards School in Oxford is building a bridge between tradition and modernity with the new Olivier Hall. Architecture mesh from GKD plays a central role in this.
St. Edwards School in Oxford is a historically deeply rooted institution with an eye for innovation. The new Olivier Hall proves this once again. The modern concert and theater hall is a testament to the fusion of high aesthetics and modern functionality. The award-winning venue not only impresses with its capacity of 1,000 seats, but also with its acoustic quality. The Olivier Hall owes the latter to its high-quality oak paneling and its oval shape, which was inspired by the legendary Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford University.
TSH Architects opted for an unusual, suspended ceiling to add the finishing touch to the imposing hall: The anodized GKD wire mesh PC-ALU 6020 continues the uniform color scheme of the hall with its warm golden-bronze finish and creates a shimmering, glossy finish.
Custom work paired with elegance
The development of the mesh panels was a special task right from the start. In order to meet the architects’ wishes for transparency and a suitable color scheme, many of the 32 panels had to be individually adapted. The unique polygonal design, refined by precise cut-outs for loudspeakers and lighting, required a high degree of flexibility and technical sophistication for each panel.
The optical finishing also required special care during production. The largest panels measure four meters in length and just under two meters in width. In order to be able to anodize the panels, they had to be divided with the utmost precision and lined up after colour treatment to ensure the desired minimum tolerance.
Uncomplicated installation, seamless integration
To prevent the fabric from sagging, the panels were reinforced with a steel frame and simply suspended to ensure access to the installations behind the panels.
The triple bending of the mesh along the upper and lower edges and the reinforcement of the edges enable seamless integration into the oval ceiling construction of the hall. Thanks to the good project coordination with the architects and the contractors as well as GKD’s high level of manufacturing precision, the integration could be carried out on site without the need for any adjustments.
