Improving acoustic clarity in a specialist healthcare environment
Ensuring staff wellbeing is important at WSP and was one of the reasons behind its desire to have relaxing breakout areas where staff could unwind, have refreshments and spend time with colleagues away from the busy office environment.
WSP is one of the world’s leading engineering professional services firms, with 42000 talented people, based in more than 550 offices, across 40 countries.
Ensuring staff wellbeing is important at WSP and was one of the reasons behind its desire to have relaxing breakout areas where staff could unwind, have refreshments and spend time with colleagues away from the busy office environment.
With this in mind, and working with main contractor Overbury PLC and fit-out specialists, Idaco, Style installed two DORMA Varitrans glass moveable walls that featured retracting double door sets to separate the breakout areas. The client was able to add their own forest manifestation graphic giving privacy while adding to the chic interior design of the offices.
In both breakout zones, the glass Varitrans moveable wall systems allowed WSP to create two smaller rooms or one large open plan space with ease. In addition to this, Style installed 8 DORMA Variflex fully automatic moveable walls on two different floors. This gives WSP the flexibility to create 3 larger meeting rooms or 7 smaller meeting rooms.
Each of the walls boasts an impressive 55Rw dB acoustic integrity and is finished in a Camira Blazer Fabric with acoustic absorption boards. As a result, these walls enabled the best acoustic integrity for meetings, client briefings and conferences to run concurrently and undisturbed.
Andy Gibson, Style’s director for the North, commented,
“The Varitrans glass with the forest graphic was a really nice solution for WSP as it creates a sense of escapism to their office, creating space where staff can relax, enjoy their lunch or catch up with their colleagues in a flexible, welcoming and peaceful breakout area. And when not in use, the space can be quickly turned into an open plan area.”
Aileen Rooney, director of Idaco, said,
“I personally think what you have done with the overall feel of the workspaces, and especially the breakout areas, is outstanding and has to add to the considered welfare of the staff.
“The central location in Manchester has been justified with a perfect working environment. Well Done.”
Talk to us about your acoustic goals — we’ll help you design a solution that sounds as good as it looks.
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HBN 00-09 sets out these surface characteristics because unsealed joints are a recognised place for moisture and micro-organisms to collect. A genuinely joint-free edge is designed to address that specific detail.
This is a surface and edge specification, not a clinical claim. Zero-joint technology has not been evaluated or certified by NHS England, and does not claim to reduce infection rates.
Food-service and guest-facing areas are typically inspected under hygiene and housekeeping standards that look closely at surfaces and joints. A seamless, moisture-resistant edge is designed with exactly that kind of scrutiny in mind.
Every one of these sectors shares the same underlying surface problem: a bonded-strip edge is a seam, and a seam is a place where dirt, moisture or wear can concentrate in a way a continuous surface can't. Zero-joint technology addresses that one structural detail across offices, schools, healthcare and hospitality settings alike — one construction detail, one shared weak point removed, four sectors that each care about it for their own reasons.
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