The car park is the gateway to many buildings and venues. Before a customer, visitor or client has stepped foot in the reception or walked into your office, they will probably have already been in your car park.
This makes the car park more important than it would first appear – as it is not just a utilitarian space, but is instead the place where those you want to impress the most will make their first impression of your establishment.
However, getting a car park to both look good and provide the necessary functionalities is not an easy task, as all the building materials will have to cope with the stresses and strains of vehicular traffic. Nowhere is this truer than of the floor, which needs to withstand the constant movement of heavy cars, corrosive automotive oils, exposure to the elements and more.
For these reasons, many car park designers are turning to specialist car park deck coating systems that are able to provide the aesthetic as well as functional properties required within busy, large, multi-storey car park environments.
Flexible polyurethane deck coating systems are able to overcome these issues, as the robustness of this type of material means that it will shrug off these challenges for a very long period of time. The combination of durability and flexibility is key, as the floor’s flexible nature means that it will flex with the movement of the cars and the building and won’t crack like a more brittle material would.
The ability of polyurethane deck coatings to maintain a seamless, impervious and colourful surface has made it a popular choice among car park designers, such as at Kuala Lumpur’s KL Gateway, The Met. Bliss in Hong Kong, Sydney’s Star Casino and the prestigious Cosmopolitan Club in Bangalore.
Having a floor that would maintain its colour was an important aspect of all these projects. For example, the KL Gateway had a variety of different zones that were all marked out in bold colours, such as the pink ladies-only spaces, blue pedestrian zones, purple car-pooling bays and green crossing lanes.
Kuala Lumpur’s KL Gateway used bold colours to designate the different parts of the car park, like these ladies-only parking bays.
Visuals were critical in the Star Casino for a different reason, as the logo of its exclusive Sovereign Room was incorporated into the floor coating at the threshold between the car park and the high-end Casino area to reinforce the venue’s identity and image.
Putting the Sovereign Rooms logo underfoot in the car park was a great way to emphasise the high-end identity of this exclusive casino venue.
