The personality, vision and culture of a school should be reflected in its reception area. As the first room that every visitor, student and parent sees, the front of house presents an opportunity to impress and for a school to characterise its beliefs in just one look. Reception rooms need to be well planned to take into account footfall and should also have a large desk that is both practical and enjoyable to work on.
To create the right first impression, it’s worth taking a bit more time on the design of the reception area. Research indicates that a good school reception should be well decorated, display student work and be comfortable, friendly and welcoming. Understanding this Formica Infiniti® was specified to add a special touch to Riverside School’s reception room.
Portakabin was chosen as the principle contractor for the entire £44.5m three-school campus, which is now the UK’s largest offsite free school. With over 50 years’ experience in delivering market-leading modular solutions for a range of buildings; including schools, offices and hospitals, Portakabin delivered over 24,000m² of teaching accommodation across six hectares.
Formica Infiniti was selected to create a stylish ambience in the reception area of Riverside School. For the project, a 16 meter long reception and library desk was designed to impress. The contrast between the matte texture of Formica Infiniti in Storm and the gloss of the desk’s base in White, taken from the Formica® laminate AR Plus Colour range, was selected to create an open and welcoming space.
One of the main issues in designing a school reception desk is how children love to put their hands on everything. A sense of touch is important to our surroundings, tactility is in our nature and for children it is important for both learning and understanding the world. The fingerprints on the desks, however, can be challenging to manage.
Its resistance to fingerprints, marks and accidental abrasions makes Formica Infiniti perfect for creating a warm welcome and a lasting impression. Elegant and sleek with a contemporary matte finish, it not only feels soft, but also works harder than any laminate surface made to date and stays looking better for longer. You could say the surface is childproof.
