Moveable partitions

Project The Factory Manchesteren

Project The Factory Manchester

manchester_the_factory

When most people think of a flexible wall, they think of a wall in a hotel or conference room. But a wall no less than 21 meters high? Can that be realised? Multiwal can.

The renowned architectural firm OMA Architecten, known for many award-winning projects, designed a beautiful multidisciplinary cultural centre for the city of Manchester where music and theatre come together. A flexible, soundproof partition wall had to be placed in it. Due to the extreme dimensions of 21 meters high, the requirements for construction, wind loads, sound absorption, and noise were of the highest level.

Multiwal has previously worked for the Manchester United Stadium and hotel, so we are no stranger to Manchester City Council. We were of course honoured to participate in this prestigious new project.

The walls serve to separate two halls and have an important function as absorption fields for the large music hall. The installed absorption panels provide good acoustics when the walls are in the room and when the walls are positioned along the side walls in the parking switches. The requirements for sound insulation are very high, with a surface area of ​​two times 600 m2 and fitted with double doors, a practical value of 55 dB must be achieved. After the design was developed, Multiwal had noise tests carried out at ITA Wiesbaden to ensure that we would meet these insulation requirements. In addition, Multiwal simulated the wind load for this wall to arrive at a stable construction with the correct calculations.

To be able to move the 4,000 kg elements, a rail construction with suitable rollers was designed, so that the elements can be parked with special parking techniques and switches. The combination of the stable construction and the application of the Multi Electric system ensures optimum quality and user-friendliness.

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