Tech Zone used on new-build commercial project

An Armstrong Ceilings product story

Edited by the Interiorstalk editorial team Jun 13, 2011

Armstrong Ceilings' Tech Zone has been used for the first time on a new-build commercial project - in development company Don Little Properties' offices in a mixed-use landmark building in Leeds.

Armstrong's Tech Zone is a customised ceiling-services solution run in partnership with other industry leaders in lighting, air handling, loudspeakers and chilled beams, which guarantees the compatibility and integration of all the technical elements.

The Tech Zone system at Indigo Blu comprises field panels of Optima white mineral tiles that are twice as large as standard ceiling tiles

The Indigo Blu development in the heart of Leeds' commercial centre, on Hunslet Lane, comprises two floors of offices under seven floors of apartments.

When it came to the 10,000ft of office accommodation, Don Little Properties wanted a contemporary, monolithic, linear look and an environment in which a city worker's requirements for light and air quality did not compromise the aesthetics, which include aerofoil-shaped columns and cross-sectional braces.

Armstrong's Tech Zone system at Indigo Blu comprises field panels of Optima white mineral tiles, which at 1,200 x 1,200mm are twice as large as standard ceiling tiles, and technical panels of Orcal 150 x 1,200mm metal tiles, suspended on Armstrong's Interlude minimal 15mm grid system.

The technical panels contain the technical elements - in this case luminaire lighting systems from Zumtobel and four-pipe fan coil air conditioning from Trox, but both the Optima and Orcal tiles also perform well acoustically - the Optima tiles to Class A sound-absorption levels.

The integrated system, which was designed by Architecture 2B architects, is made to measure, negating the usual requirement to cut out field panels to install services, resulting in an aesthetic solution that is also easy to install and maintain.

It also negates the specifier, installer or customer having to check the compatibility of all the technical elements.

More than 800m of it was supplied by CPD Distribution in Leeds and installed in less than two weeks by two operatives from John Atkinson Interiors, an approved installer from Armstrong's Omega network.