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Colchester Radiotherapy Center

Colchester General Hospital

installed November 2014

 

This was a very exciting project which was carried out with Jenny Brown of jenniferannbrownglass.co.uk.  The work consisted of first submitting an expression of interest and from there being selected to present to the commissioning panel.  We were commissioned, following the presentation, to create a unique set of works for the internal waiting areas of the newly built Radiotherapy Centre.

 

We worked very closely with staff and patients, carrying out extensive research about the locality and what patients and staff would like to see.

 

There were two main areas and four small signage areas.  The first reception area has images of Colchester and Essex.  For example, the logo of Essex County Council, the band stand, Colchester Castle, the Jumbo Tower etc.  The second area represents  the flora and fauna of the locale, along with industrial imagery such as Thames Barges, beach huts etc.  Look closely at the two Canada geese at the end and you will see they are wearing golden J's around their necks!

 

The four smaller signage areas were numbered 2, 3 4 and 5 and are where patients wait immediately before going into the treatment rooms.

 

The glass is two layers of float (window) glass which have been treated with a wide variety of techniques.  These include the use of frits, screen printing, sandblasting, slumping, hand painting, silver stain etc.

The frames were made from oak and individually made.  Once set in the frames, fillets were added behind the glassed before a strip of LEDs stuck to the frame.  

 

One of the most fun parts was curating the works and deciding where each individual cell would be placed.  We spent a great deal of time over this stage, ensuring that the overall look would be as pleasing as possible.  The backboards were then drilled and the frames screwed to the backboards, making sure that the lighting wires were through as well!

 

Once we had delivered the completed boards they were installed using split battens and then finished off with oak trim.  We first started working on this project in February 2014, finishing late November.