Social enterprise scales new heights in Staffordshire
WORK has begun on a new indoor climbing centre in Staffordshire. Rockworks Climbing Walls of County Durham is installing the new facility at the Kilnworx Climbing Centre in Stoke-on-Trent.
The company has also designed and developed the new leisure facility, which is housed in a former chapel and once complete, will be managed by a new social enterprise.
Kilnworx while primarily intended as a climbing centre, is also set to offer a host of other sporting and fitness activities as well as workshops, training and socially inclusive programmes.
For the centre to meet its objectives and different uses, the wall had to factor in a number of requirements as well as some tricky aspects due to the age and design of the chapel.
Rockworks director Steve Jones said: “Our design and engineering team rose to the challenge and delivered what we believe to be a winning design.
“There are walls and routes for every grade and we’ve packed a lot into the space with impressive overhangs, a competition wall and a technical overhanging arête for a real challenge.”
Jin Sandhu, director of Kilnworx, said: “We have spoken to a number of providers over the past two years of development and in the end selected Rockworks. (They) worked closely with us to get a design that worked for the building, the restrictions, the centre’s needs and within budget. The design has definitely got the wow factor.”
The North East company fought off stiff competition from several other national and international contenders for the contract and follows other project wins in Europe and the Middle East.
