Innovation & Automation
Seamless Movement
Bristol’s £56 million, state-of-the-art Life Sciences building, opened by Sir David Attenborough in October 2014, provides teaching and research laboratories, seminar rooms, computer facilities, staff offices and a café – all clustered around a central atrium.
Working with architect, Sheppard Robson, and main contractor, Vinci, Style was asked to create flexible space both in the main lobby and the laboratories.
The laboratories posed an interesting challenge as the moveable partitioning wall needed to be installed into a very narrow, tight gap between fixed bench desks. So constricted is that area that the only solution for moving the panels in and out of situ was a fully automatic one, as no-one could get into the space to slide them into place.
DORMA Moveo’s ComfortDrive system was deemed the optimum solution, however Style enhanced the mechanism making it completely automated. At the push of a button, all of the panels move into place, the telescopic end panel then completes the wall and the seals activate – all in one seamless movement. In total, 6 fully automatic walls were installed with pass doors at each end.
For the lobby area, with light and space being important, DORMA Moveo Glass was chosen as being both the most practical and stylish solution; an acoustic glazed moveable wall system with a Rw 50dB performance and semi-automatic operation.
Julian Sargent, Style’s group managing director said, “The solution we delivered in the laboratory demonstrates the level of skill and ability of our designers and technicians."
“This was an outstanding partitioning wall installation in a very tricky environment, yet by having the highest calibre of experts on our team results in genuinely innovative solutions for customers.”
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