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Floor coverings with additional value: High comfort even for wheelchair users
“The floor plays an important role in the educational concept of the campus”, say the architects. The intention is that children use the floor as a surface for doing homework on, or for painting on, but also for playing around and for relaxing on - somewhere to hang out in comfort. If a child trips and falls, the elastic floor will ensure it doesn’t hurt. Rubber floors are also non-slip when wet, which is also a decisive safety factor. The common rooms and multifunctional areas border the patio directly and, in particular in winter, the children will walk indoors in wet shoes. Children who use wheelchairs are also taught in the Berresgasse Educational Campus, it is also important that the floors be comfortable for wheelchair users. The Weinheim factory produced noraplan unita for this project at the architect’s request in a special thickness; at 2.5 millimetres it is thick enough that it offers high ergonomic and acoustic comfort and is also sturdy enough that wheelchair users can move around on it with ease.
Good acoustics for undisturbed learning and teaching
Due to the open design of the educational centre, it was also important that noise could not spread easily between the individual clusters. Thanks to its high permanent elasticity, the rubber floor coverings dampen the noise of footsteps and help provide a quiet learning atmosphere. The internal atmosphere is also of great importance for a healthy learning environment. The materials used in the construction of the Educational Campus had to fulfil the strict environmental requirements of the City of Vienna. With its “EcoBuy Vienna” initiative, the city is ensuring that all of the products it procures are environmentally friendly and ecologically compatible; nora rubber floor coverings are a perfect match. They are low on emissions and have all internationally significant environmental certificates. As they contain no phthalate plasticizers or halogens, they contribute significantly to good internal air quality. Fire safety was also a significant factor in choosing nora floors: they fulfil fire safety class BflS1.
Coloured rubber floors help you get around and are safe
The multi-functional areas in the Berresgasse
Educational Campus are marked out with different
coloured floors and stand out from the hallways. “The
coloured rubber floor coverings help with zoning
areas and marking meeting areas where children from
different areas meet”, explains the team from PSLA
Architekten. “On top of that, they also define the areas
that can be furnished and those that must be kept clear
as escape routes”. Three of the five colours of noraplan
unita - blue, red and green - are special colours and
are co-ordinated with the furniture and doors, which
are in the same colours. Two colours, sand and beige,
were taken from the standard range. “We very much
liked the homogeneity of the materials used in noraplan
unita and the combination of rubber and granite”, said
the architects.
Sustainable floors with added value and an attractive
design: nora rubber floor coverings underpin the
educational concept in the Berresgasse Educational
Campus in many ways.
