Designing walls and ceilings within a school, a  hospital or a terrace home? There’s a GIB® system for it. Unsure how to approach noise control in an apartment, or fire in a shopping centre, or seismic in a commercial office? We have the information, systems and details you need for any sector you work in.

GIB® systems have traditionally been ordered by function: noise control, reverberation control, wet areas. This is still the clearest and most efficient way for us to order our vast range of systems and solutions, but as a single project may require noise control, fire and reverberation control, it can mean that the designer has to use a number of our system books to get the right systems for their job.

Understanding that this can take time, we have started a programme of developing sector solution guides to provide design guidance for walls and ceilings specific to that sector, collate relevant systems from a range of our literature, and develop new targeted systems. In 2017 we released the GIB® Terrace Home Guide, and this month we release the GIB® Healthcare Design Guide.

It is essential then that designers and contractors have the right information to make the best decisions about  specification and installation to ensure these buildings are well designed to perform now and into the future.

GIB® systems from our Noise Control Systems and Fire-Rated Systems literature that were particularly appropriate for healthcare and hospitals have now been pulled together into a single place to make it easier and faster to find the right system for the job.

Additionally, as the requirements and expectations of healthcare facilities changed, we found there were opportunities to develop new systems that would be particularly suited to environments that may require a range of responses for mould resistance (high hygiene),impact resistance (gurneys in corridors) and noise
resistance (for privacy and rest).

The GIB® Healthcare Design Guide also details design considerations such as acoustics in hospital environments, impact, crash rails and overlays, and surface abrasion resistance. With case studies of Burwood Hospital and the Elective Surgery Unit at North Shore Hospital, as well as an expert perspective
from acoustician Dr Jeremy Trevathan, this aims to be a useful and much used prompt for those in the healthcare design sector.