The aim of the project is to significantly raise the profile of the Cathedral within the City and to make people pause and engage, to provide peace and opportunity for reflection, to help people interact and visit the Cathedral, to learn, understand and feel welcome.  

Our Journey

A feature natural stone ribbon has been designed as part of the Common Ground in Sacred Space project to run and ‘flow’ around the perimeter of the building and has been produced at IP Surfaces in Kilkenny Irish Blue limestone with 3 different textured finishes with an initial flamed effect and then 2 different intensity laser-etching which picks out the contrast of the material when wet and dry. Words of encouragement and affirmation are also laser-etched into the limestone at intervals along the ribbon paving. The Lottery-funded project aims to capture the imagination of visitors and encourage them to enter the Cathedral having contemplated the messages within the ribbon to hopefully see life from a different perspective.

The University of Central Lancashire’s (UCLan) stunning new £60 million Student Centre and University Square is now the focal point of the Preston Campus where the city’s first public square for 70 years has become the place for students and local communities to come together and enjoy many university and public events for years to come.  

Our Journey

The focus of attention of the designed aesthetics of the Square itself are the bespoke benches and also the patterned walling that runs adjacent to the Student Centre. Preston-trained artist and sculptor Halima Cassell (who in 2021 was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours) was commissioned to design a series of applied ‘Industrial Art’ works based on her enduring interest in 3D tiling repeat patterns. Integrated directly into the actual design fabric of the public realm, these designs have formed the decorative embellishments to the granite used in retaining the ‘Miley Tunnel’ walling on Rodney Street and integrated seating sited around the university’s new square. These beautifully bespoke new benches were created collaboratively, with the artist working closely with Hardscape’s sister company IP Surfaces and the client team on a series of initial hand-drawn sketches which were re-interpreted to CAD-based setting-out drawings, from countless sampling of materials’ trialling methods of designs with IP Surfaces to establish if it were even possible to recreate the patterns technologically. IP Surfaces were able to demonstrate that ‘anything is possible’ and pursued Halima’s vision to re-create her intricate patterns into 3D drawings in their state-of-the art facilities utilising production techniques such as CNC waterjet, laser-etched and sandblasting techniques, together with hand-skilled masons to create incredibly unique, bespoke, sculptured, surface-embellished features, to adorn the surroundings of University Square. The new development is the culmination of UCLan’s Masterplan project, launched in 2015, which set out a vision to create a state-of-the-art, sustainable campus for students, staff, visitors, and surrounding communities for years to come. The material used for the patterned walling was Kobra and Crystal Black granites with a combination of flamed, honed and polished waterjet-cut elements which gave a really striking contrast and dramatic aesthetic to the finished wall. For the Royal White granite benches IP Surfaces used their 5-Axis CNC using a router tool and then had stone masons finishing it off using manual hand cutters before it went into a sandblasting container to remove any saw marks. IP Surfaces went through many surface-embellishment processes to arrive at these finishes which, in collaboration with Halima, became a proven triumph for what can be made possible when vision becomes a reality. With Halima’s visionary ideas of her patterns and designs, IP Surfaces were determined to make her dream a reality and went through many trials and tests to achieve the ‘hand carved appearance’ for the benches in particular with incredible attention to the surface shape, texture and finish. A testament to the collaboration involved and the combination of human skill, ingenuity, and technological advancement with stone material manipulation techniques.

Ian Banks commissioned as Public Art Consultant by Preston City Council helped manage and oversee the physical install of a large bronze by Aardman Animations in Preston city centre in September 2021. Ian’s brief was to facilitate and then deliver a permanent public sculpture for the city centre. As part of the new public realm, Oscar-winning animation studio Aardman Animations had been approached by the city council to design and install a permanent bronze of much-loved animation characters Wallace & Gromit. Their resulting bench assembly is now permanently sited outside the main pedestrian entrance to Preston Market.  

Our Journey

IP Surfaces collaborated with Art Consultant Ian Banks from Atoll UK and used a combination of Kobra, Kobra Green flamed granites with Premium Black polished granite lettering created by manual stencilling and sandblasting. To complement the inlayed artwork pavers, Magma flamed granite setts was used for the surrounding paved area. The 7-foot-high bronze statue consists of a full size but stretched traditional street bench where Gromit sits to one side reading his local newspaper. Behind, Wallace wearing the ex-NASA ‘Techo Trousers‘ first bought for Gromit’s birthday in the film, and tilted on one leg, offers passers-by a happy thumbs-up. When originally commenting on his proposals back in 2007, Nick Park had said: “This is a really exciting project and I’m delighted to be working on the designs for a Wallace and Gromit statue in Preston. As a Prestonian myself, it would be a wonderful honour to have a statue to Wallace and Gromit in my home city.”

The Glade of Light is a memorial commemorating the victims of the 22 May 2017 terrorist attack at Manchester Arena and honours the 22 people whose lives were taken, as well as remembering everyone who was left injured or affected. It was designed to be a living memorial, a tranquil garden space for remembrance and reflection. Its peaceful surroundings are intended as the setting for commemorative events in the city relating to the attack. Winners of a Manchester City Council inspired competition, the memorial, and the garden in which it is located, was designed by Liverpool-based landscape architects BCA Landscape and creative agency Smiling Wolf. Altrincham-based landscape architects Planit-IE wrote the specification for the competition memorial.  

Our Journey

IP Surfaces wanted to take responsibility itself for the construction of the memorial on site, having fashioned the 26 pieces of Carrara marble that formed the two sections of the ‘halo’ at its factory at Logistics North, Bolton. Galliford Try had been chosen as the main contractor and IP Surfaces’ sister company, Hardscape, had been chosen by landscape architect Planit-IE, who wrote the specification for the competition for the memorial, to supply the stone for the garden in the Medieval Quarter. The project team visited eight quarries in Carrara, Tuscany, all pre-Covid timings and conditions, before deciding on the particular marble they wanted, which needed to be technically sound to offer the least amount of movement as well as being aesthetically pleasing. BCA Landscape wanted the marble slabs to be bookmatched (see top right image below the drawings). As Andy Thomson told the Architects Journal: “Bookmatching creates a beautiful effect within the marbled surface that also mimics the bilateral symmetry that we see in nature and is particularly evident in the ephemeral moment of a passing butterfly.” Once the slabs had arrived in the UK at IP Surfaces, the project team came to inspect them and BCA Landscape chose precisely where the cuts would be made for bookmatching. By the time the slabs were being cut, Covid restrictions had begun and the decisions on individual slabs were made using remote digital assets via the internet. Each of the 26 slabs weighed 2.3tonnes and each took a full day to cut to radius and embellish on the CNC at IP Surfaces state-of-the-art facility. Several loads of the marble slabs were transported to site organised by Hardscape’s logistics team and then professionally installed by a Hardscape recommended sub-contractor. In the centre of each of the joining edges of the slabs is a semicircle, which accommodates a ‘memory capsule’, containing personal and appropriate memories of their loved ones. These were capped onsite with bronze lids with marble inlays and central bronze hearts. The caps were both resin-bonded and mechanically fixed into position and sealed by hand by an IP Surfaces skilled stonemason. The names of the deceased are also written in the stone, with the inscription being cut by waterjet into the marble and filled with brass inserts. There are bronze dividers between each of the slabs that, like the memory capsule lids, protrude ‘proud’ of the surface. This is largely to discourage skateboarders from damaging the memorial. The joints were also further complicated by there being a slight fall on the marble surface to stop water pooling on it. The joints had to accommodate the fall; hence they were cut on a waterjet to achieve the compound angle required. The marble was sealed with a Tenax Stoneline 81 product to protect it and make it easier to keep clean. IP Surfaces’ Founding Director, Mathew Haslam, reflected by stating: “It’s a great example of what stone can achieve; how you can manipulate it to achieve a design intention for a particular location, and the awesome energy it can bring to a project. What has been achieved here has received the sort of recognition that is usually reserved for a building. It has all the ingredients of what I stand for and what the team here assists me in achieving on an hour-by-hour basis. I’m very proud of our part we played in this meaningful and iconic project.”

Located on the sea wall, the trail of a series of installed 31 polished black granite Storyboards along Scarborough’s Marine Drive, manufactured for the Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre, tells the story of Scarborough’s history. The idea for the project came about from the Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre in 2019, and were consequently awarded £40,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund at the start of 2022. Also involved with the project was the Archaeological and Historical Society and the Scarborough & District Civic Society with permission to use the sea wall given by Scarborough Borough Council. Each ‘Porthole in Time’ tells a small part of Scarborough’s rich and varied history. People walking the trail can learn more via a smartphone ‘App’ or website to get more details on each of the Portholes. Local residents and visitors, together with students from local schools, helped select the historical topics to feature in the project. IP Surfaces collated all of the original designs and artwork, collaborating closely with Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre, and reproduced them for their CNC production techniques of reverse etching and sandblasting the Premium Black granite polished portholes including meticulous hand-crafted attention to detail by the IP Surfaces team. Project Manager, Huw Roberts, a Trustee of the Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre, commented at the time of installation: “This is great news for Scarborough, and its residents and visitors. Whatever was happening in history, ancient or modern, Scarborough has been up there making the news and contributing to one of the most fascinating and unique heritages of any town in Britain.” The trail of the 31 information portholes was installed in November 2022 and inaugurated by local award-winning playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn on 6th December 2022.

Public Artist Tom Pearman was commissioned by Aldi UK and Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council for a series (3 in total) of bespoke stools, 500mm diameter x 550mm high, and bespoke stainless-steel cycle stands for their new car park and entrance area. The stools were based upon oven dials and the cycle stands upon various food types. As part of the programme, Tom worked with art students at Abingdon & Witney College creating a series animated GIF files of domestic switches turning on and off to be displayed in the supermarket entrance lobby. The students made gif files of kitchen appliances turning ON and OFF. The theme of the artworks was designed to complement the OVEN DIAL STOOLS recently installed in the store’s exterior. Tom collaborated with IP Surfaces and chose a Royal White Granite for the stools with an inlaid Premium Black granite element and inlaid 50mm diameter Hi-macs (3 colour types) also 130mm x 130mm premium Black granite inlaid into top with sandblasted artwork. Dowel holes were drilled into the base with recesses for logistics and offloading. The stainless-steel cycle stands were all waterjet-cut into various food-type symbols for the canopied area at the side of the store.

Produced in remembrance respects to the fallen of two World Wars and specifically the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic, which was formally unveiled by Her Royal Highness Princess Royal at Our Lady and St Nicholas’ Parish Church, Liverpool in May 2023, IP Surfaces were proud to have supplied and processed the hard landscape materials to this project who also created all the artwork and embellished elements within the scheme. IP Surfaces produced laser engraved Kilkenny Irish Blue Selected Limestone paving in 4-tone etched detailing together with a waterjet-cut wave design and feature medallion with inlaid brass and steel details with surrounding riven Crosland Hill Yorkstone paving, corduroy tactiles and steps together with Kobra granite sawn and flamed paving.