What does a care building ask of a fabric?
An aged care home, a clinic or a health campus is a workplace and, for many people, a home. Fabric can make long corridors, lounges and dining rooms feel warmer and quieter at the same time. A woven relief such as the geometric weave of Cubic Pico, the organic texture of Accentric Crash or the three-dimensional texture of Optic Braid softens a hard interior, and it soaks up echo, so conversation is easier to follow.
Every Acunic fabric is woven from Trevira CS, and Indorama Ventures, which makes Trevira CS, states that its flame-retardant polyester fibres and yarns hold OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certification, Class 1. Standard 100 is OEKO-TEX's laboratory test for harmful substances, and Class 1, the class for babies' and young children's products, has the strictest requirements and limit values. The certification covers the fibres and yarns Acunic is woven from, and it makes Acunic well suited to care buildings and other sensitive spaces.
Two things guide the choice in these buildings. The NCC's lining rules are strictest in the public corridors of unsprinklered care buildings, and the fabric must suit the facility's cleaning. This guide covers both.
Which lining rules apply in care buildings?
Table S7C4 in NCC Specification 7 decides which Group Numbers a wall or ceiling lining may have, and the answer changes with the building class, the location in the building and whether sprinklers are fitted. For a care building, read the Class 3 or 9a rows and the Class 9c row of the table.
Group Numbers allowed for wall and ceiling linings, NCC Table S7C4
NCC 2025 Volume One, Specification 7, Table S7C4: the Group Numbers permitted for wall (W) and ceiling (C) linings in the building classes these articles discuss. The rows are unchanged from NCC 2022. Read each row with the edition adopted in the project's state and the table notes.
"Sprinklered" means a building fitted with a sprinkler system complying with Specification 17, other than a FPAA101D or FPAA101H system (Table S7C4, note 1).
"Specific areas" (Table S7C4, note 2) are a sole-occupancy unit in a Class 2 or 3 building; an open-plan office (Class 5) or shop (Class 6) whose minimum floor dimension is more than five times its floor-to-ceiling height; a patient care area in a Class 9a health-care building; an auditorium in a Class 9b theatre or hall; a classroom in a Class 9b school; and a resident use area in a Class 9c building.
In a building that is not sprinklered, clause S7C4(1) also requires a smoke growth rate index of not more than 100 or an average specific extinction area of less than 250 m²/kg.
Whether a fabric wall panel or ceiling sail is a lining or an attachment is decided by the building certifier.
In an unsprinklered Class 3 or 9a building for the aged, people with a disability, children or health care, public corridors need Group 1 walls and ceilings, the same as fire-isolated exits. Specific areas in those buildings, such as sole-occupancy units in Class 3 and patient care areas in Class 9a, allow Group 1 or 2, and other areas Group 1, 2 or 3. Unsprinklered Class 9b assembly buildings other than schools carry the same Group 1 corridor rule.
Sprinklers relax the corridor rule. In a sprinklered Class 3 or 9a building of those uses, public corridors allow Group 1 or 2, and specific and other areas Group 1, 2 or 3. Table S7C4 lists Class 9c, the residential care building, as a sprinklered building, with the same Group 1 or 2 corridor rule and Group 1, 2 or 3 in resident use areas.
An unsprinklered building has one more test to pass. Without sprinklers, a lining must also meet the smoke limit in S7C4(1): a smoke growth rate index of not more than 100, or an average specific extinction area below 250 m²/kg. The building certifier checks the fabric's smoke values against the clause, so raise them with AKA Acoustics when you specify.
These rows are identical in NCC 2022 and NCC 2025. NCC 2025 is in force in the ACT, Victoria and Western Australia, with 12-month transition periods in the ACT and Western Australia; New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania move to it on 1 May 2027, and the Northern Territory stays on NCC 2022. Ask the building certifier early whether a framed fabric panel or a ceiling sail will be treated as a lining or as an attachment; the questions to bring are in how Group Numbers work.
Which Acunic fabrics suit a care corridor?
A corridor that needs Group 1 linings calls for the Group 1 fabrics in the table below. The table gives the Group Number of each Acunic fabric in AKA Acoustics' Technical Product Summary (Version A, October 2024).
Australian fire Group Numbers
Cubic Pico, Accentric Crash, Accentric Crinkle, Accentric Soundwave and Optic Braid are Group 1 in the Technical Product Summary. S7C4(2) asks for a Group Number determined in accordance with AS 5637.1, so if the certifier asks for the test report behind a rating, ask AKA Acoustics before you specify.
A corridor wall is also brushed by trolleys, chairs and hands. Getzner's datasheets give each fabric's Martindale abrasion figure to ISO 12947-1: Cubic Pico 60,000 cycles, Accentric Crash 70,000, Optic Braid 60,000, Accentric Crinkle 20,000 and Accentric Soundwave 15,000. Check the figure for the fabric against the client's brief.
Where else does fabric work in a care building?
Lounges, dining rooms, activity rooms and resident rooms are where people talk, and where reverberation makes speech harder to follow. Fabric there shortens reverberation, so conversation stays clearer, and it gives the room texture that a painted wall does not. Panels on a frame suit rooms with free wall, as fabric wall panels explains, and sails suit rooms whose walls are taken by windows and furniture, as fabric ceiling sails explains. Getzner's framed panel, the acunic frame, is shown with Acunic wall panels.
What about curtains in care buildings?
Curtains sit outside the lining rules: under C2D11(3), curtains, blinds and similar decor are exempt from the fire hazard property requirements, with a proscenium curtain required by Specification 32 as the national exception. Check the client's own fit-out requirements for curtains before choosing a fabric. The detail is in the curtain exemption explained, and Getzner's curtain systems are on the Acunic curtains page.
Hospital cubicle and privacy curtains are a use to raise with AKA Acoustics before you specify any Acunic fabric for a curtain in a patient care area.
How is fabric cleaned in a care building?
Care is set per fabric by Getzner's datasheets. Cubic Pico is non-washable; Getzner advises removing surface dirt by carefully patting or vacuuming, or by patting it with a damp cloth, never rubbing. Accentric Crash and Optic Braid take a 40 °C delicates cycle. The care of the other fabrics is in how each Acunic fabric is cleaned.
The facility's infection-control and maintenance leads decide what cleaning is acceptable on site, so show them the care text for the fabric before it is specified.
What is Getzner's Health Campus Bludenz project?
Getzner Textil's Health Campus Bludenz project brings Acunic to a health campus, in an event space rather than a clinical area. It is a versatile event space in a historic attic at Gesundheitscampus Bludenz, used for meetings, lectures and yoga; Getzner names mitiska wäger architekten as the architects and 2025 as the year of implementation. Previously, pronounced reverberation significantly impaired speech intelligibility there; Getzner lists the acoustic systems as ceiling sails and acoustic curtains, and Cubic Giga fabric as an acunic frame with timber frames, and reports that the textile ceiling elements and acoustic curtains reduced the reverberation time.
Cubic Giga is Group 2 (Technical Product Summary), so in an Australian care building it suits the locations where Table S7C4 allows Group 2: sprinklered public corridors, specific areas and other areas.
