Movable walls transform study environments

Neil O'Halleran, marketing director at Brockhouse, examines the impact of acoustic movable walls, partitions and dividers on BSF schools and academies.

The government's GBP45bn BSF programme aims to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in England by 2020.

Acoustic movable walls are playing an increasing fundamental role in these schools and are being built into the basic designs.

Schools and colleges have been concerned by the standard of the movable walls and partitions being specified, especially the acoustic ratings.

Quality is increasingly significant as schools now consider the complete product lifecycle when assessing value.

To help raise industry standards, Brockhouse has produced a complete 20-point quality checklist to help schools ask the right questions when specifying or purchasing a movable wall.

This includes tests for endurance, shock impact and thermal insulation, as well as the provision of extended warranties and full service agreements.

The full checklist can be downloaded from the schools section of the Brockhouse website.

Movable walls are used in a variety of settings within schools.

For example, to separate large sports halls to enable simultaneous events to be staged, or space to be tailored for assemblies and meetings.

Dining areas, drama halls and gymnasiums can all be quickly converted from one large space to a number of smaller areas.

Smaller dividers and partitions can also transform classroom and study spaces.

The Petchey Academy in Hackney, London, specialises in healthcare and medical sciences, opening up career and life opportunities to young people in this part of east London.

The five movable walls designed for The Petchey Academy were provided by Brockhouse.

The company provided structural engineers and technical information to assist with the design of the structure and helped specify extra steelwork to support the stacking.

It also provided advice on acoustic performance, to ensure compliance with the latest regulations set out in the BB93 document and in the ISO 140-3 standard on acoustics in schools.

The special movable curved-wall solution included a bespoke design edge profile using a ball and socket joint that provided for acute angles within the headtrack.

This enables a smooth curved wall to be formed with self-locating stacking operation for easy configuration.

The dining side of the divided hall has a bright-yellow laminate finish.

On the drama hall side, the screen has special sound-absorbent board that creates acoustic excellence, according to the academy.

The academy said that this was important as it plans to form its own orchestras, bands and choirs representing different genres of music.

Four other movable walls at the Petchey Academy provided classroom flexibility.

These were standard series 500 high-performance movable acoustic walls.

They are top hung with no floor track and also offer acoustic insulation.

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