The Horsham Fire Station & Training Centre, known as Platinum House, is the first new fire station built in West Sussex since 1974. This state-of-the-art facility emphasises sustainability and is the first live training centre in the area, setting a new standard for fire stations across the UK. Designed with a user-centric approach, it focuses on the health and wellbeing of firefighters while offering cutting-edge virtual training facilities.
Scope & Services
Showcase PSR Portsdown was engaged by Willmott Dixon to consult, specify, procure, deliver, and install all elements of the FF&E (Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment) for this project. Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, including rising material costs, PSR conducted a series of online workshops to gather crucial information and developed a tailored FF&E package that met the revised budget without compromising on design.
The PSR team collaborated closely with architects HNW to develop a finishes package that complemented the building’s design intent. The in-house design team used 3D Revit design software to space plan the fire and training centre, and designed and fabricated bespoke furniture elements throughout the station. The furniture sourced from reputable manufacturers such as Narbutas, Clarke Rendall, and Connection ensured quality and durability.
The facility features flexible furniture for training rooms, bespoke shelves and desks for incident rooms, specialist lockers for firefighters’ standard kit, specialist decontamination benches and hangers for external use, and specialist racking designed around firefighters’ storage requirements. Additionally, PSR provided furniture for breakout areas, bedroom furniture and mattresses, the canteen, control room furniture, meeting rooms, and the reception area, ensuring every aspect of the facility was thoroughly catered to.
Success Points
This unique project required furniture across the full spectrum of FF&E, including specialist bespoke lockers, training spaces, bedrooms, heavy-duty racking, and standard office furniture. The extensive supply chain enabled comprehensive support for the client’s needs. When the budget was reduced due to Covid-19, the PSR team worked diligently with the supply chain to create a value-engineered furniture package that maintained robustness and met budget constraints. PSR arranged a completely bespoke system of heavy-duty external benches and hangers for decontaminating firefighters’ suits. These units were carefully designed to maximise the space available, ensuring efficient decontamination processes.
Sustainability Considerations
Sustainability was central to this project, incorporating renewable energy sources such as solar panels and ground source heat pumps. It was essential that the furniture selected complemented these sustainable initiatives. Showcase PSR Portsdown always ensures that manufacturing partners prioritise sustainability and recyclability of products at the end of their lifecycle.