Acoustic ceiling maze at Flinders Uni Festival Tower
Project Information
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Products used: Array 12mm, EchoPanel® 12mm, EchoPanel® 24mm, Pico Embossed Panel & Zen Embossed Panel
Designer: Architectus
Installer: Built
Date: 2024
Photography: Shannon McGrath
Woven Image partnered with Architectus to design and deliver a unique and extensive application of acoustic features for Flinders University, Festival Plaza Tower. Ceilings, walls and workstations received in-house and custom acoustic enhancements across the eight-level vertical campus. In the heart of the Adelaide CBD, Festival Tower marks a new era for higher education in South Australia.
“As a densely populated tertiary education interior, acoustic comfort was a high priority.” - Daniel Stanning, Associate & Senior Interior Designer at Architectus.
The tower contains multi-mode teaching and learning spaces, study zones, a library, a moot court, staff open-plan work areas, private offices, event facilities and outdoor terraces. Flexibility, collaboration, connectivity and a sense of belonging were important facets to bring to life throughout the campus.
EchoPanel® and accompanying Array ceiling hardware created an incredible maze of baffles. Wall panels, Pico and Zen, further support the dynamic nature of the floors, also helping to decrease noise reverberation, serving as cues and creating visual delight, overall enriching the academic experience.
“The EchoPanel Array ceilings define the interactive and student-led zones throughout the vertical campus. These soft, sculptural canopies provide a sense of arrival at each floor, immersing the visitor in an engaging educational environment with strong visual impact.”
- Daniel Stanning, Associate & Senior Interior Designer at Architectus.
“The interior of the Flinders Vertical Campus is inspired by the nearby riverbank precinct, and the Kaurna story of the climbing tree.”
- Daniel Stanning, Associate & Senior Interior Designer at Architectus.
The area is a significant site for the Kaurna people, and the project reflected this in its commitment to cultural sensitivity and environmental awareness. Architectus integrated the natural and cultural narratives into the campus's very essence.
“The objective for the design team was to create immersive and inspiring learning and teaching spaces, infused with the tones and textures of the natural world.”- Daniel Stanning, Associate & Senior Interior Designer at Architectus.
The selection of materials and their colours aligned with Adelaide’s rich earthy tones, including natural greys, ochres of eucalyptus bark, and the lush greens of treetops. Woven Image’s colour palette was up to the task. The chosen colours included cool neutral tones of Frost (101), Chalk (501), Slate (447), Charcoal (542) and Onyx (550), alongside colourful tones of Cinnamon (167), Olive (384), Navy (365), Blush (487) and Sage (580) complimented with warm neutral hues of Mushroom (454), Vanilla (468), and Cream (908). Beyond functional and aesthetic design, Woven Image’s products offer numerous environmental declarations and certifications that supported sustainability outcomes in the built environment.
“As designers, we really appreciate the way Woven Image embraced more complex ways to work with EchoPanel. The ability to retrofit ceiling tiles and acoustic blades to the existing t-bar ceiling framework was a gamechanger. Their thorough and meticulous shopdrawing process gave us a lot of reassurance that the design vision would be executed beautifully. The technical team from Woven Image worked collaboratively with us and alongside other contractors to ensure a seamless result.”
- Daniel Stanning, Associate & Senior Interior Designer at Architectus.
Woven Image was delighted working in partnership with Architectus and contractors. From concept through to installation and final inspection, the Woven Image Commercial Service Team were able to offer technical design services to support Architectus and contractors to finalise the Flinders fitout, the way it was envisioned.