Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners (RSHP) chose one of the fastest wide-format printers available on the market, according to Canon UK, for its new base in the Leadenhall Building in the City of London. 

The practice will use the Canon for technical documents, graphics and designs to meet its need for accuracy, sharper lines and increased render resolution on mapping documents and graphics.

RSHP is led by award-winning architect Richard Rogers who co-designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris and created the Lloyd's Building in the City of London.

Associate Lorenz Frenzen said the practice had considered other high-volume colour options, but thought the ColorWave 910 was "the stand-out choice for modernising our printing department”.

He declined to give the cost of the machine, which runs at around 16sqm/min and was installed last week, but said it was comparable to the HP 8000 series of machines.

RSHP also uses an Océ ColorWave 600 and an HP 600 TBS black-and-white machine, but the new Océ will replace both machines. He considered a ColorWave 900 and another HP machine.

Frenzen said: “We considered HP but what really swung it was the service deal; we have a long-standing relationship with Canon.

“Getting rid of two machines and relying on one is a bit risky in case something goes wrong. This machine will be running constantly and Canon offered a four-hour turnaround service contract.

“No other company was able to get close to that, which reassured me: if the machine happens to break down, we will have someone on site within four hours of the call-out, minimising downtime.”

Canon UK wide-format printing group director Duncan Smith said: “Canon has worked with architectural practices for over two decades.

“Architectural firms are producing ever-more daring, challenging complex designs and print operations have to keep pace and rise to the challenge.”