Flexible + fast

When Molecular Designs, a Birmingham lab advancing molecular diagnostics, built out their new space, they wanted the ability to make one big room into two smaller ones. And the Falkbuilt Birmingham Branch had the perfect solution—an operable wall.

“The lab didn’t really want a big conference room for everyday use because they don't have those kinds of meetings all the time,” says Nathan Varner of Williams Blackstock Architects in Birmingham, the architect on the project. “This gave us the flexibility to have a big room, but with the ability to use it as two rooms, every day.”

That need for flexibility, fast, is why operable walls are flying out the doors at Falkbuilt. With a 10-week lead time—the fastest by far in the industry—a couple more operable walls are being installed this week and many more are in production.

The operable walls are completely assembled at Falkbuilt HQ and shipped to site, arriving fully-kitted, with unparalleled acoustic performance and ease of installation right out of the box. Clients have a choice of a wide variety of models, including continuously hinged and floor-mounted options, so everyone can get the exact right floor-to-ceiling flexible solution.

“Space utilization is so important now because of how expensive real estate is and all of that,” says Nathan. “From a usability standpoint it seemed to work pretty easily. It wasn't like it took three people to close it.” And, with the option of a programmable operable wall, you can open or close it with a touch of a button on a device or your phone.

“It's beautiful,” says Nathan. “The fit and finish is really nice when it's open or shut, it looks really good either way. And the client likes the fact that they can collaborate all together at once. They can have the tech group meet over here and HR over here or whatever.”