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Armstrong’s new, ultra-green tile is right at home in the new home of a renewables firm

Dune eVo, and a bespoke metal tile, feature for Community Windpower.

A mineral tile that is ultra-green, even by Armstrong Ceilings’ standards, and a bespoke version of a metal tile feature on the £1 million conversion of a former farm building into the headquarters of a wind farm developer.

Community Windpower’s new head office in the old market town of Frodsham, Cheshire, uses 300m2 of the new Dune eVo MicroLook tile in the back offices and canteen, and 250m2 of acoustic mineral tile Perla 0.95 dB (which performs to Sound Absorption Class A) in closed cell offices, both on the ground floor. In addition, 900m2 of metal MicroLook 1800mm x 300mm metal lay-in planks have been used in open-plan areas and corridors on the first floor.

The new fully-recyclable Dune eVo tile and grid, the first ceiling system in the industry to gain Cradle to Cradle accreditation, provides Class C sound absorption as well as a brighter white aesthetic and excellent durability due to a reinforced fully-painted edge.

The metal tiles at Community Windpower were specially over-perforated so their ultra-micro perforations continue around the edges of the plank to give an even greater aesthetic and acoustic performance.

The highly light-reflecting Armstrong systems were specified for the 20,000ft2 steel-frame building by Community Windpower managing director Rod Wood on the recommendation of specialist lighting manufacturer XAL who provided lighting throughout the new office.

The precision of the Dune eVo and Perla tiles was particularly needed to maximise the indirect illumination from XAL’s scheme, notably the suspended Mino linear system upstairs and XAL’s ultra-slim Task office system in the downstairs boardrooms.

He was looking for ceiling systems that were “modern, artistic and bespoke” to complement the lighting systems.

“They are one of the key features interfacing with modern lighting designs,” he said. “The linear panel works well with the rectangle structure of the building and their clean and bright features also help with this. They have accommodated pitch issues well as well as light wells, air-conditioning and lighting.

“Armstrong had products that suited our building and the contractors wereconfident they could be installed. I’m very happy with the result.”

Armstrong Ceilings

The Armstrong systems were installed over two weeks, on the upper floor to sloped internal eaves, by a team of up to eight from Heatons Ceilings who are a member of Armstrong’s Omega national network of approved specialist sub-contractors.

Chris Heaton said: “The metal ceiling is at high levels/atria in the building which made it challenging to install but it really does look amazing from the ground floor. There are not many jobs with this specification in such long planks, especially as they were sloped to both sides. Instead of having a 10mm border the edges were perforated edges for aesthetics as well as acoustics. It is a little special and kind of a one-off. The Armstrong products worked and performed well to give a fantastic end result.”

Community Windpower is at the forefront of wind energy development in the UK with over 800MW built, under construction and in development. As proven renewable energy specialists, the business is experienced in the identification, design, development, construction and operation of onshore wind farms and currently has six operational wind farms in Scotland, with a further three approved for development.

More information is accessible via the Armstrong Ceilings website https://www.armstrongceilings.com/commercial/en-gb/.
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Armstrong Ceiling Solutions help the CBRE with a hat-trick of systems

Mineral canopies and metal baffles and tiles feature at the organisation’s new-look HQ.

The world’s leading commercial property and real estate services adviser has used a hat-trick of systems from Armstrong Ceiling Solutions to enhance the interiors of its refurbished headquarters.

Some 600m2 of Armstrong’s VP-500 custom vertical metal baffles, 3,250m2 of Optima L circular and custom-shaped canopies, 150m2 of DH-700 black mesh metal clip-in tiles, and 130m2 of C Profile suspension system were specified for the CBRE’s new-look offices in Milan for their form and function.

The design of the offices is inspired by the modern principles of activity-based working, a revolutionary concept that replaces allocated seating layouts with a more flexible approach to the working environment, with the aim of improving productivity through continuous and efficient interaction between employees.

For this reason, the new offices in the CBRE headquarters were protagonists of an aesthetic re-design project inspired by the values of innovation, wellness and flexibility, which perfectly mirrors the company’s global strategy, “Workplace 360”.

According to the principles of Workplace 360, hierarchical barriers have been completely lifted in favour of sharing, improving accessibility and exchanging ideas. The working environment is completely open with unassigned seats which can be booked daily through users’ smart phones. In addition, specific areas are dedicated to those who need silence and focus as well as relaxation and wellness.

Based on this concept, an in-house CBRE team, supported by Efrem Milia, an interior designer with Milan’s EMA Design Studio, has influenced and defined the functional and organisational aspects.

This cooperation allowed CBRE to intervene in each decision, both technically and decoratively. The result is an exclusive and carefully refined 2,500m2 venue inspired by the historical areas of Milan – the first floor echoing the Navigli canal area, the second the Brera art district, and lastly, the sixth the fashion district.

The decision to leave part of the ceiling with exposed building service elements determined the need to intervene with elements that delivered both aesthetics and acoustics.

And this is where the CBRE looked to Armstrong Ceiling Solutions, due to their extensive range of products and their ability to create tailored solutions that satisfy any project’s need.

In this case, a different Armstrong solution has been chosen for each floor of the renovation, with each providing an aesthetic solution, capable of integrating itself with the space and the different surrounding materials while creating comfortable working environments.

The 3,250m2 of Optima L white mineral canopies, in diameter circles and bespoke squares with two rounded corners, contributed to shaping the common areas on the first floor. These elements feature originality and modernity as well as acoustic support.

Canopy ceilings combine aesthetics with acoustic performance aimed at ensuring a higher sound absorption ratio compared to a continuous ceiling with the same visible surface. The sound is absorbed both by the front and the back surface of the panel. This significantly contributes to the reduction of reverberation time and increases the intelligibility of speech.

For the second-floor offices, Armstrong’s design team conceived a special broken-line pattern for the micro-perforated black mesh metal ceilings. These are ideal for installations in open-plan spaces where it is necessary to reduce noise pollution. A solution that creates an extremely dynamic visual effect, it is available in individual and multiple configurations, thanks to the C Profile suspension system that allows a tidy and clean alignment of the elements.

Lastly, on the sixth floor, in addition to the white baffles, C Profiles of different sizes have been used to embellish, through light and shade, the ceiling of the “Multipurpose Room”, a multi-functional room with different space configurations and a huge art wall.

Head of project management Alberto Cominelli said: “The office is no longer just a work space. It has actually become a company’s hallmark, where spaces are designed to bring inspiration, exchange ideas and create innovation. Only by creating a comfortable environment equipped with facilities dedicated to the people is it possible to increase engagement and motivate staff. Interior designers are more and more inspired by home and hotel designs, bringing an unprecedented breath of innovation to the world of offices.”

Armstrong area sales manager Jordan Brocchi added: “We would like to thank CBRE and architect Efrem Milia for trusting our solutions and involving us, giving value to the potential offered by Armstrong Ceiling Solutions in terms of personalisation.

“Now more than ever we are witnessing an increasing number of requests from architects and interior designers for support in the design of highly-customised solutions, to free their creativity in line with the rapidly evolving current trends. The requests are extremely diverse and to best respond to them, Armstrong has boosted its structure with a team of dedicated and highly-qualified engineers.”

More information is accessible via the Armstrong Ceilings website https://www.armstrongceilings.com/commercial/en-gb/
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Armstrong Ceilings launches new education brochure

It focusses on ceiling systems that make a difference in education facilities.

Armstrong Ceilings is marking the start of a new school year with the launch of a new education brochure which focuses on helping architects and specifiers design cost-effective well-being measures into education buildings for the benefit of students as well as staff.

The new education brochure, which is available to download from [url], highlights the ceiling systems that make a difference in education facilities by focussing on three key areas – enhancing learning environments through acoustics, creating visual impact through upscale and inspiring solutions, and protecting students and the environment through sustainable building design.

Whether creating a high performance classroom for a better learning environment or designing a dramatic and engaging signature space to impact a university’s ability to recruit students, the brochure, and handy online room selector tool on Armstrong’s website, helps architects specify appropriate systems for all areas within an educational setting as no two spaces have the same requirements.

While classrooms need acoustics, hallways may need durability, kitchens may need ease of cleaning and maintenance, and entrances and auditoriums may need the wow factor that helps inspire students to learn and teachers to teach.

Research shows that on any given day, thousands of students are unable to understand one out of every four spoken words in classrooms due to inadequate acoustics*. In addition, teacher surveys consistently rank noisy classrooms and vocal fatigue high on their list of frustrations. Poor lighting and glare in the classroom can also cause eye strain and fatigue for both staff and students.

In a classroom, Armstrong’s standard range of medium-density ceilings, strikes the right balance between both sound attenuation and sound absorption, blocking unwanted noise from outside while enhancing sound quality inside.

For offices, Armstrong’s dB range of higher-density ceilings minimises noise transfer between rooms, keeping conversations private and staff reassured. And for canteens and libraries, Armstrong’s OP range of lower-density ceilings controls excessive sound reflections, offering customers optimal levels of sound absorption.

As well as acoustics, the new brochure also tackles the role that light-reflecting ceilings can play in reducing not just glare but also energy bills by maximising natural light and minimising electricity usage.

The constantly varying temperature fluctuations in areas such as kitchens, particularly during school holidays when HVAC systems are typically shut down, also require ceilings with resistance to high levels of moisture – as much a necessity as ceilings for laboratories and cloakrooms that are easy to clean and maintain.

A product selector page includes variations such as the new, ultra-green Dune eVo tile, anti-microbial BioGuard, moisture-resistant Hydroboard, Ultima+ dB planks, and perforated metal acoustic tiles.

Armstrong’s new brochure also sets the best example in terms of the environment in that it explains how its Cradle to Cradle certification (the first by a mineral ceiling tile manufacturer in Europe) helps architects specify products that are designed for recycling using manufacturing processes which minimise water consumption, adopt renewable energy strategies and acknowledge social responsibility.

It also explains how Armstrong’s pioneering recycling programme for mineral ceiling tiles used in new-build and refurbishments projects contributes to LEED®, BREEAM, HQE, DGNB and Ska credits by including ceiling recycling in construction waste plans.

Examples of how specifiers have brought this motivation to existing projects, using mineral and metal tiles and canopies and baffles, are contained within five school and university case studies which show how focussing on the function of an educational building does not have to impact on its form.

*A test conducted by Dr Kenneth Roy, senior principal research scientist for acoustic technologies at Armstrong, demonstrates the difference a high performance acoustic ceiling can make in an existing classroom.

The test took place in a sixth grade classroom at the Robert E Lamberton Public School in Philadelphia, PA. Built in 1949, the 24′ x 44′ x 11′ classroom consisted of a plaster ceiling, concrete block masonry walls and a vinyl tile floor. The Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) of the existing ceiling was approximately 0.25. Sound reverberation measurements in the room were found to be an average of 1.08 seconds, far exceeding the ANSI S12.60 maximum acceptable reverberation time of 0.60 seconds.

An Armstrong School Zone Fine Fissured suspended ceiling was then installed. Following the change in ceilings, measurements were again taken and the average reverberation time was 0.56 seconds, within the maximum acceptable parameter.

However, acoustical results were not the only measures of success.

A number of subjective factors were also observed. The teacher, for example, indicated there now appeared to be less fidgeting and talking during her lessons. She also said her students seemed to be paying more attention.

An even more telling measure of success may have come from the students themselves. When asked if they noticed any changes, their most common response was about improvement in the noise level. Others also commented that the room was brighter. As one student, who sat in the back of the room, summed it up, “I can hear (my teacher) a lot better today.”

More information is accessible via the Armstrong Ceilings website https://www.armstrongceilings.com/commercial/en-gb/.
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Armstrong Ceilings prove their metal for the Metropolitan Police Service

Custom metal ceiling systems from Armstrong World Industries have brought form and function to the award-winning transformation of that bastion of island security – New Scotland Yard.

Armstrong’s metal F-H 600 hook-on tiles and swing-down rectangular planks with concealed G-Profile grid and acoustic fleece, and metal T-Clip F tiles with Spring-T grid, were specified by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris architects for the £65 million remodelling, refurbishment and extension of the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police.

With a constrained floor to ceiling height the Armstrong systems met the demands for electrical servicing and lighting while mechanical services, data and small power outlets were installed in a raised access floor void.

As well as the circulation spaces, corridors and lift lobbies, Armstrong’s custom micro-perforated metal systems, which perform up to sound absorption Class A, were also used for the ground-floor multi-use and Press Rooms where acoustic absorption and integration of lighting were key design considerations.

Architect Steven McCloy said: “The existing building had compromised and varying ceiling heights with complex service requirements. Due to the constraints of the existing building, tile lengths were manufactured to suit.”

“The ceilings are generally acoustic plasterboard apart from the doughnut of service runs on each floor which are made from the Armstrong demountable metal ceiling planks. These have an aesthetic and practical application, allowing the integration of light fittings and so on, and can be demounted for access or change in the future.”

He added: “The Armstrong systems were detailed with minimal interfaces with other surfaces, thus avoiding trimming or cutting.”

The redevelopment of the former Curtis Green building (so named after its architect William Curtis Green) on Victoria Embankment involved demolition, a new structural steel frame, new cladding and interior remodelling to make a 21st Century smart workplace with an engaging public realm.

AHMM’s design is a radical remodelling and extension of the 1930s stone-fronted building. The core objectives of the brief were to create modern, flexible and efficient office environments, extend available floor space and facilitate agile working with more interaction between staff and visitors.

The design has transformed the building with the addition of an elegant curved glass entrance pavilion, a new rooftop pavilion, extension of the floor plates to the west and the reworking of the existing accommodation which has expanded the building’s floor area from 8,691m2 to around 12,000m2.

The contemporary design of the new extensions sensitively complement and enhance the architectural features of the original Neo Classical building and respond in materials, colours and proportions to neighbouring Whitehall buildings.

Inside, AHMM has created a flexible office environment to facilitate collaboration and interaction. The rooftop extension provides multi-use conference space and terraces and is illuminated to give presence at night, symbolising the 24/7 nature of policing the nation’s capital along with creating a civic presence.

New Scotland Yard has won numerous awards including an AJ Retrofit award for Best office over 10,000m2 2017, Building Magazine’s Project of the Year 2017, and the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award 2017, along with a RIBA London Region Award 2017 and RIBA National Award 2017.

More information is accessible via the Armstrong Ceilings website https://www.armstrongceilings.com/commercial/en-gb/.
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The next evolution in ceiling tiles – Dune eVo

New Dune eVo ceiling tile range helps architects meet targets around sustainability and acoustics

Architects striving to design more sustainable and attractive modern buildings are being given a helping hand by Armstrong Ceiling Solutions, after the company launched a range of new ceiling tiles, all of which are 100% recyclable. The range has been designed to provide class leading visuals and improved acoustic performance through a new surface which is both brighter and smoother.

Armstrong’s new Dune eVo range is the next evolution in ceiling tiles. It includes a full mix and match ceiling portfolio: Dune eVo, Dune eVo dB and Dune eVo Max, giving architects complete acoustic and design flexibility for every space. Dune eVo is also the first ceiling system in the industry to gain *cradle-to-cradle accreditation.

The Dune eVo range has been designed to enable architects to specify ceiling systems which not only demonstrate high performance in use, but which also offer sustainability benefits through the choice of raw materials used in production. Furthermore, the range includes a full recycling offer, free to the user at the end of the ceiling tile’s life.

Armstrong has designed the Dune eVo range to project a more modern appearance in building projects, with uniform finish, allowing architects to specify ceilings which are not only sustainable but which can enable modern buildings to achieve a premium aesthetic. This is particularly important as architects continue to design environments which positively affect occupant health, well-being, and productivity.

The fifth evolution of Armstrong’s popular Dune tile, first launched in 1984, the Dune eVo range follows the Dune Supreme range and has been developed following feedback from customers. The result is a range of attractive and effective ceiling systems, which can be re-used multiple times, taking both the ownership lifecycle and occupancy well-being to new heights.

Graham Taylor, Sales Director for the UK, Ireland and Southern Africa at Armstrong Ceiling Solutions, commented: “We understand that architects are always looking to build more attractive buildings to create an aesthetic which improves the places where people work, live, and play. Those buildings that achieve this typically attract more investment and enhance the wellbeing of building occupants. This is why we have continued to develop our Dune range, re-engineering the product for more effective installation, and creating ceiling systems, which are truly recyclable and can continuously be re-used.”

Sustainability is increasingly becoming a priority for modern construction projects, with the UK’s Construction 2025 strategy revealing that architects can enjoy cost savings over a building’s operational life simply by specifying sustainable materials at the design stage. In addition to delivering environmental benefits to architects, Armstrong’s Dune eVo family of ceiling tiles can also contribute to greater occupancy wellbeing, having been engineered with class-leading whiteness and acoustics to create brighter and better surroundings. The eVo range provides a balanced acoustic performance of up to 0.65 aw, Class C sound absorption, and a sound attenuating performance of up to 39 dB. It also has fewer perforations than many standard ceiling tiles to create a uniform, smooth and contemporary finish. Furthermore, Dune eVo has also been designed to have a reinforced fully painted edge, making it more durable and resilient both in storage and application.

Graham Taylor continued: “Our Dune range has been extremely popular amongst architects for the last 33 years so when it came to developing the range even further, we wanted to create products which add value at every stage of a building project, from design and specification, through to build and beyond. The result is fully recyclable and sustainable products for architects, with enhanced acoustics, which are easy to handle and install, and which pass on further benefits post installation, to building occupants. This fits with our mission to positively impact the spaces where people live, work and play.”

The Dune eVo ceiling range was officially launched on June 21, 2017, during an exclusive event at Mercedes World.

To find out more about Armstrong’s new Dune eVo range, please visit the website https://www.armstrongceilings.com/commercial/en-gb/whats-new.html

*Please note, the Dune eVo Db product is not C2C certified

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BIMobject is now the portal of choice for Armstrong Ceiling Solutions

Armstrong Ceilings’ BIM files are now available in 12 languages.

BIM objects for the Armstrong Ceiling Solutions range in Europe, the Middle East and Africa are now available for specifiers, designers, BIM managers and contractors to download in multiple languages on BIMobject.com.

The worldwide manufacturer has re-launched its BIM offer through the global portal www.bimobject.com to reflect its truly international reach.

The Armstrong Ceilings EMEA files are available to download in two of the most popular software formats used in Europe – ArchiCAD and Revit.

Within these BIM objects detailed product specification and information text and links to Armstrong product datasheets are available in 12 different languages – English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, Czech, Dutch, Hungarian, Polish, Turkish and Russian.

These BIM files cover almost 300 individual items within 29 product lines including the Cradle to Cradle® certified Perla and Ultima+ ranges and the ever-popular Dune range.

Armstrong’s commercial technical manager EMEA Rob Gardiner said: “Having our BIM objects more easily accessible for all our customers, wherever they are in the world, and in both ArchiCAD and Revit makes it easier for our customers to design and specify projects with
Armstrong ceiling systems using BIM.”

Video guides showing how to access Armstrong BIM objects can be viewed via YouTube on the following links: Revit and ArchiCAD 
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