Improving acoustic clarity in a specialist healthcare environment
Maximising the use of space is an important challenge for any school, and a way of achieving this is to use moveable walls so that rooms can be sub-divided or opened out for a multitude of activities.
Peter Emptage
Beardwell Construction
The school opened in 2001 with an initial intake of 180 students. Following an Ofsted inspection in October 2011 it was awarded ‘Outstanding’ status and was ranked in the top 10% of the country in June 2012 for value added at GCSE for students achieving 5 A*-C grades, including English and Maths.
Maximising the use of space is an important challenge for any school, and a way of achieving this is to use moveable walls so that rooms can be sub-divided or opened out for a multitude of activities.
Working with architects, Peter Emptage, and contractors, Beardwell Construction, Style was appointed to deliver a flexible room configuration between the old and new restaurant extension.
To maximise light and offer outstanding ease of operation, DORMA Moveo Glass was chosen. Moveo panels are up to 50% lighter than conventional moveable walls, and Moveo Glass brings daylight into partitioned rooms whilst maintaining a high acoustic performance of up to Rw 50dB. Its revolutionary ComforTronic automatic seals are also standard, which means they allow quicker operation ensuring acoustic integrity every time.
“Moveo Glass is an exceptional product,” said Keith Way, Style’s director for the South East. “And for an open, light and spacious school restaurant it was perfect – mainly because the area can be sub-divided with ease but the feeling of space is always retained.”
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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