Education Building Solutions

Education

Introduction

The impact of education infrastructure on learning outcomes has been extensively researched and documented. Overall building design and condition, lighting, internal air quality, temperature and acoustics – have all been shown to have a direct affect on student achievements and behaviour. (Schooling Issues Digest: The Impact of School Infrastructure on Student Outcomes and Behavior, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Australian Government, 2002.)

Knauf offers a wide range of solutions to satisfy specific requirements of education buildings, such as fire protection, sound isolation, sound absorption and impact resistance. The use of Knauf GECA lightweight buildings systems and GECA certified products can also contribute to the environmental performance and Green Star rating of a project.

Fire Protection

Knauf offers a wide range of lightweight, fire-rated building solutions that satisfy National Construction Code (NCC) requirements for fire protection within Hospitals and other Class 9a buildings. These include fire rated walls and ceilings, fire tunnels and fire protected columns and beams.

Acoustics

Guidelines for educational facilities acoustics developed by the Association of Australian Acoustical Consultants (AAAC) provides recommended acoustic ratings for walls and ceilings in educational buildings. Knauf offers an extensive range of lightweight wall and ceiling solutions that satisfy these requirements.  The full suite of Knauf systems together with an extract from the AAAC Guidelines can be found in Systems+ .

Knauf also offers a range of sound absorbing wall and ceiling linings including Echostop® perforated plasterboard with NRC ratings up to 0.80, and a wide range of acoustic ceiling tiles with NRC up to 0.95.

Impact Resistance

Impact damage to internal wall surfaces is a major contributor to the high maintenance costs of educational buildings. Whether they are located in corridors, classrooms or sports halls, walls are often subject to damage; far in excess of normal wear and tear.

Knauf provides a range of lining products offering various levels of impact resistance. Multistop® plasterboard has been specifically designed for use in high traffic areas, such as corridors. Available with continuous fibreglass mesh embedded within its core, Multistop® is particularly effective in resisting soft body impact. Fiberock® Aqua-Tough is a paperless gypsum board with cellulose fibre reinforcement that is useful against hard body and glancing impact.

Sustainability

Sustainable design is an integral requirement of many government and non-government projects. Government authorities and leading developers now commonly go beyond the minimum energy efficiency requirements stipulated in the National Construction Code, and specify Green Star rating for their projects. The use of Knauf GECA lightweight buildings systems and GECA certified products can contribute to the environmental performance and Green Star rating of a project in the areas of energy consumption, waste management, internal environment quality.