I’d like to revisit a project we worked on a few years ago, it was too interesting to let it pass us by, in 2019 we were approached by Robothams Architects to develop a design to produce a….. wait for it…. Bookcase door!
Bromsgrove school has lots of different buildings all over the town most of them very old, they are always making improvements and alterations to these buildings, some for school use like lessons and study and some for student accommodation. This particular building was ear marked for study with a section for staff use.
There was a doorway with a short but low corridor which lead to a doorway which was to be a staffroom, the school needed a bookcase for staff notices and letters but had no available wall space for a cabinet to suit this requirement. So, the idea was to create a bookcase shelf which would fit into the opening of the corridor and swing open to reveal the corridor behind it. Something that wouldn’t be out of place in Wayne Manor.
Robothams sent over a design of the sizes and finish required and we set about developing this design and sourcing materials and hardware to make it work. With lots of hardware on the market for hinging and swinging my main focus would be the weight, as most hardware has weight limits and there would be a lot of weight in the unit as lots of shelves were required. I managed to source a lightweight Oak veneered ply, which would reduce the weight of the unit by half if we used this material instead of regular veneered MDF.
Looking into hardware I settled on a heavy duty door pivot which would fit into a floor plate and would work in partnership with a top pivot which is retractable with a screwdriver, this would allow us to hang the bookcase without having any hardware on show. I also included for a castor which would be hidden within the plinth, this would help absorb any extra load that the pivot system would not be able handle.
The whole door would fit within a frame that would take away any concerns of the opening not being square or twisted, the frame would also carry the hardware which would support the door.
We installed on site in one day, this was one of those jobs where everything was in the planning, the guys in the workshop did an incredible job constructing the unit, time in the workshop helped reduce any extra fiddly time on site.
This job will always stick in my mind, I thoroughly enjoyed the development and R&D process and I was lucky enough to be able to make time to help install the unit.
I hope you have found this interesting and if you’d like to hear more about some jobs from our history let me know in our socials.
Have a great weekend.
Adam
Video Link: https://youtube.com/shorts/i76QBnE0VQo