ELS designs and specifies the fixed joinery for schools, colleges and campus buildings — classrooms, labs, lecture theatres, libraries, canteens and hostels — and ALUMAX manufactures and installs it. The difficulty is that each of those rooms has a different enemy: chemicals in one, water and humidity in the next, cabling in the third, and three hundred students using all of them every day.
A science lab bench sees reagent spills, burner heat and daily wash-down. That drives the top material (solid phenolic or epoxy resin rather than laminated board), a coved or sealed junction at the sink, chemical-resistant sealant, and reagent cupboards that are ventilated and lockable rather than ordinary tall units with a shelf in them.
In Sarawak's climate the failure point is rarely the door face — it is the exposed board edge under a sink, at a canteen servery, at a hostel skirting, or behind a classroom cubby that gets mopped daily. Moisture-resistant substrate where water is present, fully sealed cut edges, sealed plinths off the wet floor, and back panels detailed so a wall carrying condensation is not in contact with raw board.
Student furniture is loaded, leaned on, sat on and slammed. Hinge and runner cycle ratings, drawer load ratings, edge radii on exposed corners, and tamper-resistant fixings matter more than finish choice. Equally important is what the unit fixes back to: brick, block, dry lining or a hollow partition each need a different anchor, and tall cupboards need positive restraint against pull-over.
An IT lab and a tiered lecture theatre both fail the same way — cables added after the joinery is fixed. Outlet positions, containment routes through the bench frame, cable ports at the desk line, and access panels have to be set out with the M&E drawings, along with ventilation clearance around equipment so heat is not trapped inside a closed pedestal.
A canteen counter is a queue machine on a fixed break period. Counter length, tray slide height, the gap between hot-line and cashier, and where the queue turns decide whether a sitting clears in time. Behind that: stainless where food is handled, a counter front that can be hosed and wiped without water tracking into the carcase, and no closed void at floor level that cannot be cleaned out.
A rear storage wall of uppers, open cubbies and a lower counter run, plus a teacher console that keeps the front board wall clear.
Low storage under the whiteboard line with tall cupboards and cubby shelving at the sides, dimensioned to a repeatable classroom module.
Curved tiered bench-desk system set out to the riser geometry and sightlines, with a lectern and a low credenza run under the boards.
Curved timber shelving volumes and freestanding stack bays, sized for load, aisle width and sightlines across the hall.
Servery counter front with a stainless hot-line, plus a refectory bench table run laid out to the queue and seating turnover.
Built-in study desk runs with overheads and open shelving, and a full-height wardrobe — all fixed, lockable and hard to walk off with.
Workstation benching with cable routes and outlet positions set out first, plus wall storage and a wet pantry counter with sink.
Island benches with sinks and gooseneck taps, a perimeter base cabinet run, and tall glazed reagent cabinets that lock and vent.
ELS holds a design library covering every space above — layouts, material directions and joinery details developed for this sector. It is a commercial asset, so it is not published or downloadable. We take you through the sets relevant to your project, and you keep the ones your brief actually needs.
Send us the room schedule and floor plans and we will scope the joinery room by room, then quote against the measured scope.
Images on this page are concept studies from the ELS design library. They illustrate how these spaces are specified; they are not photographs of completed projects, and they do not represent a fixed product, inclusion or price. Commercial scope is quoted against a measured survey and an approved specification.