Global Fintech Company Chooses Style For Moveable Walls

UK financial technology company Wise recently moved into new global headquarters in London, expanding its footprint by 40% and providing workspace for more than 1,000 employees. Partitioning experts Style worked with HLW Architects and contractor, Overbury, to add flexibility to the office’s expansive meeting space. Enabling the area to be quickly reconfigured for groups of between 10 to 150 people, Style installed a combination of Dorma Hüppe Variflex solid and glass moveable walls, all featuring semi-automatic operation.

Providing privacy between the divided rooms, the moveable walls deliver exceptional acoustic performance - 59dB Rw for the solid walls and 52dB Rw for the glass. A market-leading solution, Variflex offers a range of design and operational options, making it suitable for almost any location.  Wise is an expanding fintech company focused on global money transfers, allowing people and businesses to hold up to 40 currencies, move money internationally and spend money abroad.

Large companies and banks use Wise technology too; an entirely new network for the world's money. The prestigious new headquarters deliver flexible office space combined with in-house well-being amenities, located in the heart of London’s Shoreditch tech district. Blending seamlessly with the contemporary interior design of the Wise offices, the Variflex glass frames feature a black finish and a customer-supplied veneer, whilst the solid walls are finished in blue fabric.

For added functionality, the cross-walls feature a white, writable surface that is excellent for brainstorming sessions and meeting notes.  Making it quick and easy for employees to configure meeting rooms to suit their needs, the moveable walls benefit from semi-automatic operation. As the individual panels are moved into position, the substantial acoustic seals automatically expand to deliver exactly the right pressure to maximise acoustic integrity. Pass doors provide convenient access between areas. 

“This is a really superb combination of moveable walls that provide a number of small meeting rooms when required, or the facility to quickly change the space for larger meetings, all the way up to a full auditorium,” said Michael Porter, Style’s group managing director. 

www.style-partitions.co.uk

SFS Center Point System Launched To Enhance Accuracy, Appearance And The Environment

Building on its well-founded reputation as a manufacturer of cladding support systems and high-performance fasteners, SFS Group Fastening Technology has developed an advance, user-friendly new system for installing flat panels across both steel and aluminium sub-frames.

Amongst the benefits of the patented Center Point System is the fact that it answers the challenge of accurately positioning the self-drilling, double thread fastener at the exact centre of the hole in the panel, ensuring the avoidance of subsequent damage to the surface through thermal movement/  It also prevents the environmental risk of plastic waste polluting the site by employing a bio-degradable, pre-fitted centring sleeve, which will not constrict the space around the shaft with any residue.

Being made available through SFS stockists nationwide, in a selection of clamping lengths to suit different panel thicknesses, the well-engineered fixing can double the rate of progress and is designed to negate the problem of façades being disfigured, sometimes within just months of completion.  Having been made available in Europe last year with a standard centring sleeve, the new SDA4 and SX4 fasteners have already been appraised for compatibility by a number of leading OEMs as well as major installers across the UK industry and are being recognised within ETAs. 

The Director of Product and Market Development for SFS, Andrew Stolworthy, comments: “Center Point solves a variety of issues in a single, simple-to-fit development; avoiding the risk of misalignment or having to utilise a separate, expensive centring device for predrilling the hole in the sub-structure member, which takes time. Otherwise, once the building is handed over, the expansion and contraction that occurs across the panel and within the sub-frame will lead to cracks or potting if the movement is not correctly accommodated." 

"With Center Point, the sleeve is ejected from the hole as the installer tightens the fixing and will then biodegrade in line with accepted scientific guidance.  The shaft, furthermore, features a double-thread which avoids it being pulled over to one side, and then there is a thread-free zone to prevent it unwinding and working loose due to vibration.”

In fact, the sleeves, given the designation CS11/4, are produced from biopolymers and other materials which science recognises as being biodegradable under DIN EN ISO 14855, while also meeting limits on heavy metals and other hazardous substances set out under EN13432.2000.  In normal soil and under moderate climate conditions, all traces of the sleeve will be subject to full decomposition by microorganisms during the lifetime of the building. 

Both the SDA4 and SX4 ranges, for steel and aluminium subframes respectively, are available in four different sizes to suit panel thicknesses of 6, 8, 10 and 12-13mm, with corresponding variations in clamping length.  Center Point will be available from early in Q3 in a full selection of RAL colours on a lead time of just five working days: well within the 6-8 week period typical for the panels themselves. For further information, call 0330 0555888 or visit https://uk.sfs.com

Marmox Multiboard Specified Throughout North-East Leisure Complex

Highly versatile Marmox Multiboards from the Marmox range are being installed to create a stable tiling substrate throughout Highlight, the new Active Wellbeing Hub which is currently being built by Wates on behalf of Hartlepool Borough Council. Due for completion in Q1 2026 and replacing the Borough’s ageing Mill House facility, the state-of-the-art Highlight Active Wellbeing Hub will provide the local community with a 25m main pool, smaller learner pool with moveable floor, and a leisure pool, plus multi-purpose studios, fitness suite gymnasium and other spaces.

While the exterior styling by the specialist consultancy, GT3, makes maximum use of natural daylighting, extensive areas internally are being clad in high quality ceramic tiling: all supported by 1250 x 600 x 12.5mm Multiboards secured across the interior of the main structural framework.  The tiling sub-contract, along with installing all the internal drainage system, screeding and application of mastic pointing, is being undertaken by P. Plunkett Tiling Contractors, based in the Tyne Valley, in a package valued in excess of £1 million.

The Contracts Manager for P. Plunkett Tiling, Ryan Burr commented: “We are currently tiling areas like the corridors, two large changing facilities and a dozen individual lavatories, before we move on to the main pool enclosures and further ancillary areas, where the tiling rises to a height of four metres.  We like to use Marmox Multiboard to create a stable surface for tiling, in place of plasterboard or render, and put the product forward for this project.  We have been using Multiboard for more than a decade now as it gives you a far better level of control over the quality of the tiled backgrounds."  "

Generally, we use the thicknesses up to 12.5mm along with the plugs and tapes, as well as the Marmox 3600 as a movement joint.”  Ryan summed up saying: “Covering the full scope of commercial work – including everything from schools and hotels through to airports – we frequently also call on Marmox to create a spec’ for us to work to – and on this job we worked closely with the architect, GT3, who we have also been involved with before.  Multiboard has always proved a good and reliable product for us and we are confident in recommending it to our clients.”

Marmox Multiboards are manufactured from extruded polystyrene or XPS encapsulated in reinforced polymer concrete, produced in a range of thicknesses up to 60mm and offer a variety of positive physical characteristics in addition to being fully waterproof.  They are both light to handle and easy to cut, while still being able to sustain substantial loadings if required, such as for flooring applications.  They further offer good thermal insulation performance, helping to cut condensation risk. www.marmox.co.uk