Glass specialist Dorma of Germany says it will provide an ideal reflection of the latest trends in glass at this year's Big 5 show, where it will be showing off its innovative ranges of door furniture.

"As a reliable source for new ideas, Dorma will offer visitors plenty to see," says a spokesman for Dorma Gulf, the group's regional subsidiary. "Dorma's stand, however, will go far beyond merely providing a setting for these innovations. Visitors from all over the region will be invited to take part in discussions and exchange views on everything relating to glass and architectural design: a good reason to make a date with Dorma in Hall 3 stand 3A131."

He continues: "One of the themes of the Big 5 is 'Discover the World of Glass', and this theme will be ideally reflected at Dorma's stand, where a plethora of innovative products will be on show to impress and excite.

"In the fittings sector, Dorma's high-performance Agile sliding door furniture can offer unlimited transparency even in the most expansive of glass surfaces. The Arcos design line has seen its range of applications extended and completed through the addition of the HSW-Arcos (horizontal sliding wall system), which features a distinctive arc design on top and below.

"A new, individualistic solution from Dorma's well-established Manet range is Manet Ambient, a range of high-quality architectural hardware and fittings for the creation of furniture, vitrines and

combined shelf and cupboard systems. With Manet Ambient, sliding doors, swing doors and pivoting panels as well as shelf units can be realised. The wall and ceiling connectors offer additional variations for interior decoration. This product, like the rest of the Manet family, puts the spotlight on the ideas and creativity of the user."

Dorma recently won a prestigious award from Germany's Rat fur Formgebung (Council for Shape and Design), which chose Manet Spider as an example of excellence in design.

The Dorma Group consists of five divisions: Door Control, Automatic, Glass, STA (security, time and access) and Movable Walls and at the Big 5, Dorma will also be promoting the latest wall partitions from its Movable Walls division.

"Dorma has now become the world leader in room partitioning systems, following takeovers of Huppe Form Movables Walls (Germany) and Modernfold of the US earlier this year," says the spokesman. "Huppe is a market leader in movable partitions and for Dorma the integration of the renamed Dorma Huppe Movable Walls is an additional growth factor. Modernfold is a leader in flexible room partitioning.

The product range of Dorma Huppe integrates perfectly into the Dorma programme and forms a future-oriented addition to the pillars of the Dorma family business, he says.

Elaborating on the systems, he says: "Huppe products have been known for almost 20 years in the Middle East for their high quality, engineering and design. Great importance is placed on the functionality and variability of elements and functional engineering to form a unity, which creates modern rooms, bringing about a better quality of life for people in an attractive environment.

"The movable walls make flexible room use possible, room capacities can be fully exploited, arranged quickly to user specifications and more cost-effectively. The moveable walls have proved themselves in hotels and restaurants, public buildings, banks, fairs, city halls and concert halls, conference and training centres, shopping malls, showrooms, office buildings and private houses. "Rooms of differing styles and use can be sub-divided, reduced in size or enlarged as required quickly and simply. The flexible rail tracking allows for a number of layouts variations, as well as curves and corner solutions.

"The two essential main products - Variflex and Varitrans - form the product programme and can be used manually or fully automatically.

Variflex partition walls are the ideal solution if rooms need to be sub-divided visually and acoustically, so that the parallel use is possible. The load-bearing construction consists of twisted, stiff aluminium hollow chambers and tubular steel profiles with free-running hung ceiling panels. High strengths and excellent sound absorption are therefore guaranteed.

"Depending on use, according to visual and soundproofing requirements, different variations are available. Depending on the equipment used, soundproofing values up to 58 dB (STC) and elements heights of over 14 m can be achieved. The roofing panels are arranged according to customer specifications with all necessary inner decoration, as well as synthetic materials and metal laminations, genuine wood veneers and acoustic surface areas.

"The glass partition wall Varitrans is used when partitioning is needed while transparency, light permeability and a generous room effect is to be maintained . The individual design possibilities of the glass allow for creative design ideas, which combine with the corporate identity of the client. The flexible system with door elements and handles fulfils all structural and user requirements."

Dorma Gulf is based in Dubai, UAE.