MANRESA ROAD, CHELSEA, LONDON

Manresa Road, Chelsea, London
This project featured a number of high-end apartments – some penthouse, some duplex, some triplex – all located within a single building complex next to the Kings Road in Central London. The apartments were all bought as shells and then fitted out on a bespoke basis. Darke & Taylor undertook all the electrical, lighting, audio-visual and fire & security infrastructure for four of the apartments.

Project challenges

LIVING WALL

One of the apartment owners had specified an internal ‘living wall’ (a vertical structure covered with vegetation and plants) covering the entire staircase. This required a full waterproof electrical infrastructure to be installed by D&T.

Solution: D&T needed to use duct-grade (waterproof) cables, which were thick rubber 12-core cables as opposed to standard PVC 3-core cables used internally. D&T had to be extremely innovative in shaping and hiding these cables within the living wall, whilst leaving them accessible for future maintenance purposes.

ONE-TOUCH OPERATION

The audio-visual, lighting and security systems were installed by separate subcontractors, but needed to be linked to a single central processor and operating unit.

Solution: D&T was at the forefront of weekly design team meetings with the various consultants, architects, interior designers…etc, to ensure close coordination with all of the contractors.

PERSPEX PLATES

In keeping with the high-spec finish, one of the clients specified that all of the sockets should be ‘invisible’ and blend into the background so that the only thing visible would be the switches or plug holes.

Solution: D&T devised a system for labelling the respective card inserts for the interior designers who could then arrange for them to be decorated accordingly to ensure a seamless finish with whichever background they were placed upon.

INDOOR AQUARIUM

A feature-length aquarium in one apartment took up most of one wall and required significant planning and coordination on power and lighting requirements.

Solution: The client had employed a specialist aquarium consultant with D&T had to liaise closely to ensure that this weighty, expensive and highly bespoke structure was correctly installed and could be easily maintained in the future.

Gallery

“A feature-length aquarium in one apartment took up most of one wall and required significant planning and coordination on power and lighting requirements.”

Technical overview

Each apartment fit-out was put to separate competitive tender to a main contractor. When successful, each main contractor put together a team of sub-contractors to undertake the specific brief; D&T was sub-contracted by Walter Lilly.

Given the diverse range and requirements of the apartments, D&T put together a bespoke fit-out package for each successful bid, which included all the electrical, lighting, audio-visual and fire & security installations.