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Abcor Panels Image
UCD Registry Office within the Tierney Building, grid reference C8 on the UCD Belfield Campus. This very large open space, caters for administration staff and Student Desk.
2015-09-03 10.24.41

The project in question involved a refurb of existing space along with a proposal to address a long wall of 35 meters wide and 3 meters high, starting 3 meters from the ground. This wall runs the lenght of the space, which provided a large canvas to work with...of ignore!

Reddy Architecture + Urbanism are the driving force behind this project, with a Design Team in place.
I dealt directly with Laura Coakley, Head of Design on the project and Laura made the decision to treat the wall.

We worked under the Project Management of Marron Brothers, which I must say were a pleasure to deal with.
Communication was excellent and we were able to work along side all sub-contractors with no disruption.

The wall consisted of Pre-Tensioned Concrete with an additional shuttered and poured facade.
This wall was then covered using panels of 50 mm thick timber frames with perforated hardboard tacked to the face then wrapped with a Brown Fabric measuring 3 m high x 800 mm wide. These were then hung on split battens all the way along the wall.
We must remember, this wall was put in place back in the 60's, when we removed the panels, the depth discrepancies in the wall at some points were as much as  20 mm.

Our solution to the problem was to run new battens along the wall, stoping and starting at high points.
The abCOR-Elite aluminium profile allowed us to span these depth differences while maintaining a clean straight line.
We mechanically fixed the aluminium track to the new battens, creating a framework of 14 panels of 2.5 m wide by 3 m high, then applying our new Refracta Kiwi Fabric across the face.

Refracta Kiwi is a Performance Fabric with a coefficient of 0.60.
This excellent NRC allows us to install a slim stretch fabric profile, as the need for an acoustic absorber is taken out of the equation, which also reduces the cost.!
Along with an excellent acoustic rating, Refracta Kiwi is also certified to BS 5867 which is vertually the same as BS 476 "Spread of Flame"
Furthermore, it is certified for its low smoke emission toxicity in case of fire. This test is carried out using a very expensive method called "Airbus Standard ABD 0031"

Yes....! This product is certified and accepted for installation in planes.

The installation was a success, the only other option available to treat this wall was to batten out and plaster, then paint!

This was not a real option, as the timeframe and disruption this would have had on the project was unacceptable.

I have included some before and after photo's of the project to draw a clearer picture of what Laura and her team had to deal with in a very small timeframe.

2015-07-22 10.33.58

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2015-07-22 10.33.41

2015-08-04 08.52.59

2015-08-07 12.12.14