Suspended ceilings can serve a number of purposes within a building. Traditionally, within an office space the trend has been to install a Grid and Ceiling Tile solution. This has always been the most practical approach and serves a number of purposes:
Where a more design-led approach is needed typically an MF Plasterboard suspended ceiling has been used. Generally this form is used in the circulation areas or feature spaces and it offers a lot of flexibility in terms of design with upstands & downstands & with an infinite number of shapes possible.
More recently the design trend has been for Exposed soffits, wherein, what is usually a concrete soffit is exposed and sometimes painted. This is then complemented with both visual features and acoustic products/baffles to ensure the space still works acoustically and that sound reverberation and flanking is reduced. From a services perspective, this approach can offer some challenges in that most of the services are exposed and as such additional containment is usually required, along with aesthetically pleasing ductwork and fittings. This type of approach in many ways offers the most interesting type of ceiling treatment and can also be used with the aforementioned approaches to different areas within a building.
