Improving acoustic clarity in a specialist healthcare environment
Loughborough University is one of the country’s leading universities with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research, strong links with business and industry and unrivalled sporting achievement.
Loughborough University is one of the country’s leading universities with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research, strong links with business and industry and unrivalled sporting achievement.
As part of a £1.7m investment in Quorn Hall, an existing sports hall, changing rooms, offices and small lecture theatre were remodelled into a 560-seat lecture theatre, the largest on the campus, whilst the main building and café facilities were in constant use.
To give the University flexibility Style was specified by Core Architects, working alongside Wildgoose Construction, to install a moveable wall that could divide the new stepped lecture theatre in two.
To achieve this a vast 57dB Dorma Huppe Variflex ComfortDrive moveable wall with fully automatic operation was installed, operated via a dedicated channel in the centre of the room.
Creating the infrastructure to achieve the installation required a very close working partnership with Wildgoose who lifted 2 x 26 metre steel supports into place by crane and lowered them via chains through cut pockets in the roof.
The final installation enables University staff to divide the space at the push of a button – the operable wall gliding effortlessly into place to enable separate lectures to be hosted either side without disturbing one another.
An integrated pass door provides access between the divided rooms and the oak laminate finish adds a stunning design to this impressive lecturing facility.
“Dividing a vast, high ceiling lecture theatre with a fully automated moveable wall takes careful planning and the very best on-site project management,” said Steve Williams, sales director for Style Midlands. “We therefore worked closely with both the architect and contractor to install a product which is utterly breath-taking.
“The Dorma Huppe Variflex is a world-leading moveable wall of the utmost quality and specification, and thanks to its ComfortDrive system it moves in and out of position at the push of a button creating an acoustic seal to allow concurrent lectures to take place completely undisturbed.”
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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