By now everyone is aware of how demountable walls have changed the office landscape by offering business owners the chance to create a scalable, highly energy efficient, more productive workspace where employees can perform to their potential. They’re also aware that demountable partition walls help foster a greater sense of collaboration, free staff from the noise jungle that was the cubicle farm and make for a brighter more versatile environment that can change on the fly. But demountable partition walls are not just for offices anymore. Scores of educational and research facilities today are taking the plunge and embracing modular walls for a whole host of reasons we’ll get into below.
Demountable Walls Take the Next Step
Over the past 20 years modular office walls have gradually pushed drywall construction aside to the point that today, they are the new normal. Educational institutions and research facilities have not been blind to the changes wrought by and advantages of modular walls and with each passing year these incredible building components are finding new homes at colleges, universities and top research centres worldwide. There are a number of reason moveable walls are such a good match for these types of facilities including:
- Versatility and Adaptability: The needs of schools are constantly changing. Enrolment numbers wax and wane, new technologies demand to be accommodated and financial pressures mean the need to constantly be more energy efficient and get more from the available space cannot be dismissed. Research facilities make equal demands on their environment and yesterday’s plaster and drywall construction techniques are simply no longer adequate to answer the call.
Demountable walls, by contrast, provide the perfect synthesis of function and form, versatility and adaptability that these institutions require. Classrooms for instance can ‘breathe’ with the number of students and glass partitions can help maintain an open environment with no loss of sound control.
- Enhanced Functionality: A university course may plan to focus on a particular area of concern in the coming semester that will require extensive use of study groups. No problem when you’re using demountable partition walls to configure your space. A research team may need walls outfitted with built in whiteboards for brainstorming sessions. Again, no problem. In places where space is particularly tight sliding doors can be installed, while movable glass walls can be partnered with opaque partitions to create just the right balance of openness and privacy.
- Environmental Responsibility: The upcoming generation are the most environmentally aware generation in history and for good reason: they’re facing myriad challenges that will unfold over the coming decades that are unprecedented and require real world solutions. Moveable walls are the environmentally responsible choice of building material for educational institutions and research facilities going forward because they’re made from more than 95% recycled materials and don’t create any landfill fodder when you need to reconfigure them. Also, at the end of their long life they can be nearly 100% recycled themselves, breaking the vicious cycle of primary resource waste.
- Aesthetics: Moveable partition walls come in a variety of styles and finishes and represent a significant step up aesthetically from drywall or old fashioned cubicle walls. Demountable walls with glass panels create a feeling of unity within a space that speaks to the more open sensibilities of the age. Research labs where space is often cramped and overflowing with equipment can shed their claustrophobic reputation through the introduction of glass panel moveable walls.
The Marriage of Business and Academia
Government research funds have been slowly drying up for the better part of 20 years yet the need for companies to conduct robust R&D remains particularly acute when considering the breakneck speed of technological change today. As a result increasing numbers of entrepreneurs are partnering with academic institutions to create small-scale R&D facilities accessible to universities. These mixed use facilities create a way for scientists to retain greater control over their findings while also encouraging universities to take a more active role in a variety of business ventures. Because of the mixed use nature of such facilities and the constant refocusing of energies to new projects design flexibility is of paramount importance and nothing provides that like demountable walls from IMT Modular.
The New Frontier of Laboratory Design: Liveability
While everyone assumes scientists today are constantly obsessed with concepts that will shake the foundations of mankind 20 years from now the reality is often much more prosaic. When many scientists today look toward the future they’re not contemplating the next generation of artificial intelligence, instead they’re wondering whether they should take a job at another laboratory because the one they’re in doesn’t have enough windows.
Laboratories have always been notoriously cloistered environments and that has never been a good thing. Often the researcher winds up feeling more like a lab animal than a scientist. While demountable partition walls won’t create more windows in the lab they will allow for a more flexible deployment of the available space so that the light from whatever windows there are is allowed to penetrate into the centre of the floorplan. This type of space can also allow for the “plugging in” of various lab components like workbenches and the rapid repurposing of the space as circumstances require.
Conclusion
Demountable walls are not only the smartest and best way to create a dynamic, energy efficient office space, they’re also becoming the go-to building technology for educational institutions and research centres around the world. IMT Modular has been at the forefront of the demountable wall phenomenon and we continue to find innovative ways to improve both the durability and functionality of our modular wall systems in order to provide ways for businesses, universities and researchers to maximize available resources.
If you are looking for a way to make the most of your limited academic or research environment and budget look no further than demountable walls from IMT Modular. We’ve been helping businesses large and small attain a higher degree of flexibility and productivity for more than 15 years and we can do the same for your classroom or laboratory.