Improving acoustic clarity in a specialist healthcare environment
Harrow House in Swanage, Dorset, has been offering English Language Courses to all ages since 1969 and is dedicated to providing students, employees and partners with the highest standards of learning and personal development in a fun and culturally diverse learning environment. Working directly with Harrow House, Style was asked to install two moveable partitioning […]
Harrow House in Swanage, Dorset, has been offering English Language Courses to all ages since 1969 and is dedicated to providing students, employees and partners with the highest standards of learning and personal development in a fun and culturally diverse learning environment.
Working directly with Harrow House, Style was asked to install two moveable partitioning walls in two separate classrooms, enabling the school to have one large teaching room in each or divide them into two separate classrooms.
It was important to ensure the acoustic integrity was of a high enough quality for lessons to run concurrently, and undisturbed, either side of the wall and for there to be a pass door with a DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) compliant vision panel to enable the school staff and students to see through, and move between, rooms when the wall was in place.
DORMA Variflex in a cappuccino finish was chosen as the best option – a highly versatile moveable wall offering a sound reduction of Rw 55 dB.
Another advantage of the Variflex system is that the panel faces can be detached from the frame with ease whilst the panels remain on the overhead track. For busy public places, such as schools, it means if one panel is scuffed or damaged you swap it without having to replace the whole system.
“Moveable walls are hugely popular in schools, colleges and universities,” said Style’s group managing director, Julian Sargent.
“As a result, we are frequently specified to create flexible space in classrooms, school halls and lecture theatres – and we also offer a vertically rising moveable wall that can divide stepped amphitheatres.
“As well as installing operable walls, we are also seeing a sharp increase in demand for our aftercare and servicing support.“Moveable walls need routine servicing to ensure their long-term, smooth operation and to ensure their acoustic integrity remains intact. For a relatively modest investment, you can protect your wall with scheduled visits from our team of service technicians, with some of our clients seeing their walls last for up to 25 years as a result.”
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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