Gerflor Helps Revive Architectural Gem

Gerflor's commercial vinyl flooring Taralay was selected for the laboratory of the National Plant Phenomics Facility, Phytotron Building, a plant research facility within the CSIRO Black Mountain campus in Canberra.

Designed by acclaimed architect *Sir Roy Grounds as a modernist piece in 1962, the building combines two forms of controlled plant environments and is the only facility of its type remaining in the world.

S2F was selected to refurbish and modernise the ground floor laboratory. The project won S2F a Heritage Architecture Commendation in the Australian National Architecture Awards 2010. Project Architect, David Fletcher said Gerflor Taralay was the most appropriate flooring material to be used for the ground floor laboratory that is the showpiece of the fitout.

“We extensively use Gerflor products in biological, animal and plant based scientific facilities. While the color range is good, and is selected by our interior designers, it is the specific chemical resistance and abrasion resistance of this product which is critical to our projects,” David said.

“Very few vinyl products on the market meet the tested abrasion resistance level that the Gerflor product can offer. The abrasion resistance level is important to the on-going cleanability of the internal surfaces,” he said.

Why was high level abrasion resistance important to the Phytotron project?

“The day to day wear of the floor can result in micro scratches in the laboratory floor. These surface scratches harbor biological contaminants that become increasingly more difficult to neutralise over time. The Gerflor product’s abrasion resistance minimizes these microscratches and makes it much easier to maintain a clean laboratory environment,” David said.

Original Article: Gerflor website