UNDETECTABLES REPORT
“Good Design Award”, South Tyneside Council 28/04/03
Last week The Undetectables again proved the design maxim that “simple is best” by winning the South Tyneside Council’s Innovation Award for telecom concealment solutions at St Bedes Camber in Jarrow.
St Bedes built in 1915 is a Grade 2 listed building in Jarrow’s Albert Rd; a local landmark currently being used as offices for a leading management company. Following the installation of three telecoms antennas and two satellite dishes, The Undetectables was asked to provide a design solution.
The Undetectables began life as part of an award winning modelmaking company, making sets and props for the film and TV industry (including the Oscar winning Wallace and Gromit animation films). The Undetectables now continues its reputation for highly skilled modelmaking as a leader in the specialised world of concealment. The company’s designs are recognised by the English and Scottish Heritage associations and very much in the forefront of telecoms concealment solutions. With heritage in mind, The Undetectables felt it crucial that St Bedes maintained its original character and appeal. The team designed and produced two GRP chimney stack shrouds to be attached onto the existing chimneys. Accurate GRP copies of chimney pots were then mounted on the top: a simple but effective solution ensuring a skilful blending of the new with the old.
Simple design solutions are often achieved through complex methods and St Bedes was no exception. After moulds were taken from the existing chimney stacks, textures and colours were matched and replicated structures cast. It was paramount that the shrouds not only stay in exact keeping with the style of the building, but that they would fit the design of the steelwork bolted to the building and the dimensions of the telecom equipment itself. Following installation, the shrouds and cable trays were art-worked on site by a team of talented painters to ensure an exact match with the original building material. As well as providing realistic brickwork, moss and algae completed the aged look, crucial all concealment solutions on historic buildings.
The Undetectables prides itself on impeccable communication. Throughout the St Bede’s project, each stage was carried out with careful liaison with the LPA, the steelwork designers and installers, the telecoms company and the town council.
South Tyneside Council has now initiated “Good Design Awards” to reward such “design champions” of architecture and the built environment and to highlight the importance of quality design which affects the whole community. At the award ceremony held at Bede’s World, the Executive Director of Neighbourhood Services, Amanda Skelton spoke of the need to promote excellent designs within the local environment. Ms Skelton stressed that: “access to quality design is a right” not only for the general public but also for the Council in its search for sustainable development of community architecture within the region. The Undetectables was praised and rewarded for its concealment solutions at St Bedes; another example of this company’s ability to provide new fixtures on old buildings. The Undetectables role has always been to ensure the integration of telecoms equipment becomes an accepted, unobtrusive element and in its concealment, maintains and protects architectural aesthetics. |
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