We talk a lot about the need to ‘future proof’ buildings so that they can adapt to future climate scenarios, technologies and ways of working, but in practical terms its often the ‘here and now needs of the client’, or building user, that need accommodating just prior to building handover.
With floor plans and elevations ofter concluded months, or even years, ahead of building handover, ideas of interior layout and how a space will function have often changed in the iterim period.
Even with digital design packages now letting us visualise room details and avoid configuration conflicts, its still easy to overlook issues until they manifest themselves in the physical build.
Adapting buildings to this last minute client changes is often ranked in most common causes for buildings to overun on time and budget, with traditional partition walls generating waste, distruption, dust, noise and cost to modify and finish.
Buildings Systems UK, a Tata Steel enterprise, have recently open new refurbished offices on the Shotton Works near Chester, already recognised by RICS as a stunning refurbishment project – the development is a great example of how the need to accomodate building changes whilst minimising the economic and enviromental impact can be achieved through the use of remountable, reusable wall panel systems.
As this case study demonstrates, Trimawall® pre-finished panels with Trisofix® universal mounting system, enabled Building Systems UK to quickly, and at low cost, adapt its office space to unanticipated changes to the work space. The case shows how panels can be removed to give access to the M&E service cavity behind, then adapted and simply refitted – all without creating noise, dust or paint fumes that would have disrupted the building’s occupants.