Six unique benches made with several specialist processes were installed outside Accrington town hall in 2018. The bespoke designs recount Accrington’s rich and proud history, paying a special tribute to the Accrington Pals, Accrington Stanley FC and the area’s role in the Industrial Revolution. The project brief brought together several collaborators to fulfil the vision of Hyndburn Borough Council and Lancashire County Council. The councils set out with a vision to create a civic space for events that celebrated Accrington’s Town and Market Halls, as well as commemorate the Accrington Pals.  

Our Journey

The updated site features six duckboard benches which were made from horizontal pieces of timber, representing the duckboards on the bottom of a trench. Each of the benches are aligned around six individual granite wall plinths and placed in a band of granite setts running around the edge of the town square. These represent a traditional kerb and an interpretation of the two connected trench lines relating to the battle of the Somme; a touching reference to the Pals and all those who fell in World War One. Each of the six plinths has different pieces of art which allude to a piece of Accrington history. These include a mixture of historic photographs, quotes and logos, which involved laser-etching, sandblasting and waterjet-cut processes, all produced in-house at IP Surfaces. The historic photographs were laser-etched, text for the quotes were stencilled and sandblasted to describe the images. Additionally, waterjet-cutting was used to allow for inlaying bronze, which can be seen in the Accrington Stanley FC logo, as well as the armrests. The feedback from the client has been overwhelming, with the councils particularly impressed with the quality of laser-etched photographs on the side of the benches. The aim was to create a space to further boost economic regeneration in the town centre, and the square will act as a social focal point, which has been deemed successful in neighbouring Lancastrian towns. .

As part of the development project to improve Great Howard Street, a new abutment was constructed to create a visually spectacular design feature for the new gateway to Liverpool, reflecting the city’s rich legacy. The ambitious project presented a major design and engineering challenge with a brief to create 46 pieces of artwork on the existing 6 x 1.8m precast cement bridge panels, on-site.  

Our Journey

Collaboration was key and Hardscape was enlisted to supply the stone/concrete materials and manage the design process, enabling the artwork to be created on-site. This proved to be a real test and IP Surfaces had to go beyond existing technology to explore new ways of working in order to create factory-quality artwork in-situ. BCA Landscape and local design agency Smiling Wolf led on the design of the revitalised bridge façade, with a brief to improve the aesthetics of the existing parapet bridge panels and create a standout feature to reflect the city’s history and heritage. Realised in etched concrete with blasts of bright orange paint, the Waterloo Goods artwork stretches the entire length of Great Howard Street Bridge; creating a striking welcome to the city of Liverpool for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike. The artwork takes its name from the Waterloo Goods line, the now defunct train line which ran below the bridge, a once key artery for the city as it carried goods from the thriving docks to the wider country. Giant parrots sit side-by-side with local landmarks such as the Mersey Tunnel ventilation shafts and a 1950’s sugar silo – combining the exotic imports found at the dock with the architecture nearby, creating a unique and reverent homage to the cities dockland culture and spirit. The project was a feat of engineering – previously projects with such a high level of detailed artwork would be carried out in a factory unit and then transported to the site. However, the design work for Great Howard Street Bridge had to be created in a live, weather-dependant, on-site setting. Traditional techniques fell short, pushing the IP Surfaces team to explore new processes and exploring a range of options using its unique and existing capabilities. The result was a ground-breaking on-site, large-scale format media etching and painting process, designed to achieve a multi-surface 3D finish – the culmination of over 140 hours of research, sampling and trials. Working on site also meant that the teams had to minimise disruption to traffic and ensure the work could be carried out safely and securely. To this end, scaffolding was erected on small sections of the bridge, with work carried out on one area at a time. This also helped the teams to contain dust produced as a result of sandblasting the concrete, while providing a controlled environment for the chemical treatments used to cure the artworks. By combining pioneering technology, expert insight and inspiring creative design, this project has raised the bar, moving away from a world of plain and austere concrete abutment designs, the Great Howard Street Bridge scheme was enlivened by BCA Landscape’s artistic approach, made possible thanks to Hardscape’s determined passion and belief which enabled a unique new process to be developed and manufactured at IP Surfaces. As the first of its kind, this now paves the way for other towns and cities to follow suit and provides inspiration for the creation of more outstanding gateway designs across the country. The iconic new Great Howard Street Bridge façade is the first of its kind, both in terms of its design and the delivery technique applied. We don’t think we can overstate the scale and complexity of this project. Up until now, IP Surfaces had focused on manufacturing in factory conditions. This new process meant that we had to manufacture on-site with all the restrictions and complexities that brings.

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.

Interiors and branding expert Anna Stanton from Stanton Design came to our Stand at the Surface Design Show in 2022 and spotted a specific sample we had on display which was a carved pattern in Solid Surface Hi-Macs. The timing proved to be excellent as she was designing a new restaurant for GOKYUZU LIMITED in Finchley – a Turkish restaurant which is expanding to several locations in London with Finchley being the latest location. Anna loved the patterns which inspired her to design something unique to complement the chosen materials in the washrooms of the Finchley restaurant. We believe the whole restaurant design is amazing and a testament to Anna’s interior design creativity and talent. The fit out was undertaken by specialists View Interiors Ltd.