PROJECT INFORMATION
When Lancashire-based sports flooring specialist TVS was chosen to work on a prestigious riverside project in the heart of London it proved to be one of its most creative to date.
While the firm is best known for its state-of-the-art flooring in sports halls, gyms and leisure centres across the country, covering a drab tube station roof was a company “first”. The art installation above Temple tube station, which was dreamt up by East End artist Lakwena Maciver, would also push the company’s flooring colour palette to its limits.
In total, TVS Sports Surfaces provided almost 18,000 individual tiles to help create the artist’s colourful, kaleidoscope makeover of the station’s unused 1,400 square metre rooftop terrace. The artwork also includes the phrase “Nothing can separate us”, words penned just before the pandemic, but which the artist feels now has special poignancy.
“It has to be one of the most unusual and intricate projects the company has been involved with,” explained TVS Managing Director Paul Lafone, “but the end result has transformed a previously drab and almost hidden space that offers fantastic views over the river Thames to the South Bank, with Westminster to the west and The Shard to the east both visible.”
Claire Mander, Director a nd Curator of theCoLAB, an independent curatorial practice which helps to promote the appreciation of contemporary sculpture, said TVS had been extremely supportive of the complex and out of the ordinary project. “They showed extensive knowledge of their excellent product and were a great pleasure to deal with, always enthusiastic, flexible, professional and hard working. The public love the look and feel of our technicolour floor”.
