Acoustic performance, sustainability, adaptability, and design collide in these elevated new ceiling solution.
August 20th, 2024
Traditional grid ceilings are set for a high-performance makeover thanks to Autex Acoustics’ newest product. A fusion of acoustic solutions, sustainability, adaptability, and striking design, the Grid Ceiling Tiles are answering the calls of architects and designers around the nation, providing a beautiful and innovative solution to the under-utilised ceilings of office spaces, schools, and retail outlets.
Grid Ceiling Tiles began as an idea that formed in late 2020 after Autex Acoustics recognised a gap in the retrofit market. Specifically, the cost and hassle of adapting or removing grid ceilings (and disturbing the services within the ceiling cavity) often meant that they were left untouched to fade into the background.
After an extensive period of research and development, Autex’s technical and creative teams found a solution, with a refined and architecturally-informed product that is as adaptable as it is eye-catching, giving designers a way to elevate grid ceilings and turn them into a bespoke and high-performing acoustic design feature, all without breaking the bank (or the ceiling).
All in the details
Able to be specified across commercial, office, education, and retail typologies, the tiles are simple to fit, making both assembly and disassembly a breeze. Seven adaptable designs create multiple configurations to suit varying aesthetics, and complement Autex’s existing range of interior wall solutions.. Styles range from delicately vaulted forms to geometric angles and grids, with colour hues including monochromatic blacks and whites, to rich, earthy tones.
In keeping with the brand’s ethos for exemplary acoustic products, the tiles also serve as sound control, absorbing sound waves and managing reverberation to improve interior environments acoustically as well as aesthetically. From an installation perspective, the product itself drops in and out of the grid system and seamlessly integrates around sprinklers and lights, ensuring existing layouts and services are able to be retained.
The tiles are available in two sizes, with the larger measuring 1195mm x 595mm, and the smaller square shape in 595mm x 595mm. Thicknesses vary across the range, starting from a thin profile of 50mm and extending to a thicker 150mm.
A sustainable solution
Like all of Autex’s products, these tiles also champion sustainability. Not only are they locally made and carbon neutral, but they also contain a minimum of 80% post-consumer recycled content, which also contributes to a reduction in supply-chain wastage. The material itself is crafted from Autex’s CubeTM Acoustic Panel, a lightweight but semi-rigid panel made from compressed polyester.
As a product designed for retrofit, the tiles are also encouraging a shift towards an ethos of reuse, enabling architects and designers to achieve better outcomes in their adaptive reuse projects, and provide sustainably-led solutions for one of the most difficult items to repurpose: ceilings.
Considering that 80% of office buildings which exist today will still be in-use in 2050, products like the grid ceiling tiles have never been more important, as they provide a pathway for current buildings to meet increasing energy and environmental targets now and into the future.
Meticulously crafted and innovatively engineered, the Grid Ceiling Tiles bring colour, texture, and elegant form into spaces where people come together. As the requirements and expectations of indoor settings evolve, the tiles can be deconstructed, repurposed, or recycled repeatedly into new products again and again, meaning endless life cycles of architectural, acoustic, and sustainable grid-ceilings await.
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