An Interview with Hunter Douglas Asia

Q: A ceiling system is an important component of interior finishes. How should a ceiling system be chosen for use indoors?

A: Hunter Douglas ceiling systems are worldwide traded under three key sub-brand namely Luxalon® Metal ceilings, Techstyle®  Acoustical Ceilings and Tavola™ Beams and baffles. Luxalon® and Tavola™ ceiling are meant for both interior and exterior while Techstyle® Acoustical ceiling solely for interior.  

With continuous innovation, in 2016 Hunter Douglas has developed another interior ceiling system under the brand name of HeartFelt®, which is the first modular felt ceiling system and early this year HeartFelt® has won the Red Dot, Best of the Best award for top design quality in the category Product Design 2017. With HeartFelt® we created an extraordinary innovative design. (Red Dot : Product Design is a well-established international design competition. A jury of 40 independent designers, design professors and specialist journalists tested, discussed and assessed each individual product, awarding for a well-conceived detail solution, the Red Dot for high design quality and the Red Dot Best of the Best for groundbreaking design. In total, the competitionreceived more than 5500 entries from 54 countries.)

As ceiling system is one of the key components of interior finishes, which mostly are enclosed environment, the selection of ceiling will very much depend on design, function and comfort level that the designer and/or occupants want to achieve.

The wide selection of shapes and sizes of ceiling, which traditionally categorised as Linear, Wide Panel, Tiles, Planks, Grid, Honeycomb and Customs, as well as the extensive colours range will enable the ceiling to blend in seamlessly with the overall interior designs, or the ceiling system selected to generate a bold finishes statement by either the designer or users themselves.

While the function of the interior space will greatly determine what suitable materials, shapes and coating finishes, critically important to have high fire resistance rating ceiling, favourable light reflectance to enhance brightness and at the same time reducing the consumption of electricity, or ceiling with the high sound or noise absorption level needed to ensure to overall comfort for indoors activity like library, museum or home ceiling etc, which will be the opposite of auditorium or music room or clubs where suitable ceiling with sound reflection is greatly needed to ensure well distribution of the sound to the audience.

In addition to floor and wall surfaces, ceiling also play a very important role generating comfort for the user, with all the above mentioned design and selection of functions, the ceiling system also creating an air gap buffer for heat insulation which can be enhanced further by adding insulation materials. Some ceiling even been used to enhance the ventilation of indoor smoke generated machines or sources. 

The ceiling also act as covers against unsightly view of the under steel or timber roof structures or even concrete slabs and beams, with various mechanical pipes and electrical wiring or conduits installed, leaving only the pleasant mechanical and electrical fittings such as light, air-con grill, sprinkler, etc, visible.

Selection of ceiling materials and finishes are also critical to ensure no paint particles loosen after some time which will be affecting the indoor air quality.

Finally, most of the ceiling system also should act as a fire barrier to prevent any occurrences of fire to reach the structural component of the buildings to prevent or delay collapse and allow sufficient time for the occupant to escape safely.
(IOI Shopping Mall in Putrajaya, Malaysia – A project by Hunter Douglas)

Q: What functions do ceiling systems perform besides affecting the look and feel of a room?

A: Hunter Douglas ceiling systems are able to meet an extensive functional requirements as mentioned above from light reflectance to ensure acceptable brightness and heat level, sound absorption and sound transmission control, improve interior air quality and visual as well as fire barrier between the occupant to the top structures.

Q: What are the different materials that ceilings are made of?

A: Hunter Douglas ceiling materials are extensive from the traditional Metal of Aluminium or Steel, to other metals like copper and brass etc, as well as Textiles, Felt, Wood and Resin.

Q: How to decide which ceiling material is right for your space?

A: Hunter Douglas support our business partners with a wide range of technical consulting and support services for architects, interior designers, developers, installers, or even by owners themselves providing them design proposals to meet the design, functional and comfort requirement conveyed from the preliminary meetings. The design proposal and estimated budgetary cost will include materials, shapes and dimensions, colours and finishes, mock up and samples, visualisations and mounting drawings to help the architects or interior designers to decide the right material to be used for their building.

Q: Based on your recent projects, can you highlight some of the trends in ceiling designs?

A: The most important requirement of any ceiling design to an interior space of a building, will be the overall selection of system to meet the design, functional and comfort requirements of designers and users which will be affecting the overall efficiency and productivity of the occupants as well as ease of maintenance. At the same time, the selection also needs to be influenced by the designer with information on the green production materials and processes.

Some of the current popular trends in ceiling design now are the use of timber finishes instead of real timber, be it meranti, oak, bamboo etc; of which the timber finishes with grain pattern been printed onto a more durable, recyclable and fire resistance base materials like aluminium or steel. In this ceiling application, the nature continues to be preserved without the need to cut any trees, and the safety against fire also always been address, couple with if any reject or defect scrap during the production process, or after installation, the materials are recyclable for future use without digging deeper into earth to source for a new materials.

Hunter Douglas is the pioneer of this timber grain finishes production and application in Malaysia, with the application of close to 150,000 square metres of timber grain finishes ceiling system to the new KLIA airport in 1996.

Since then, more and more timber grain finishes had been added into the range, and new varnish timber grain finishes had been developed to further protect the grain durability as well as providing scratch resistance surface to the timber finish ceiling system. Besides airports, the timber finishes are suitable for residential, retails, showrooms, and major shopping complexes around the country of which the latest being Genting premium Outlet in Genting Highlands, Malaysia.