BRUTAL 3D Ceiling Tiles- How can we Deal with A/C vents, Hanging Lights, Fire Sprinklers?

Like almost any project, things look pretty simple until you dive in and little details create problems.  You have to deal with the reality of hanging lights and placing vents for the A/C inlets and returns.  The challenge is to come up with a solution that does not detract from that awesome BRUTAL ceiling you are dreaming about.

Do we need re-enforcement?

Since the BRUTAL tiles are non-weight bearing, you need to use a structural support from above.  This is easily done with existing hardware that drop ceiling installers and electricians are familiar with.  This works well with all of our tile designs.  This is a shot looking down at the back of a Brutal tile with the structural support. Note that the electrical box can be placed anywhere in the grid square.

If you have control over where the ducts are placed, then having them at the periphery of the room in the narrow openings is ideal.  The pic below uses Zona 1 around the vent with a piece of thin plywood creating the structure supporting the vent.

Nice, but what if you can't do that? 

Here are solutions that customers have come up with:  Very nice.

Or a bit more basic:

Some of our designs can be placed below a vent in the middle of a room, such as Globen (also above), Europa and SoBe.  The challenge is to create cuts that do not detract from the tiles and allow for enough air flow:

Sometimes a round hole is perfect in Globen:

If this is not practical, there are vents that do not clash too badly with the BRUTAL Tiles. 

Here is a vent that would work.  Note the deflector added.  If in a field of Blox, you could affix half of a Blox tile (cut diagonally) to it and it would look great.   Do a search for "drop ceiling diffuser" or "drop ceiling diverter".

This one is very simple and probably the best choice.  The center panel is removable so you can get creative and cut down a BRUTAL tile and attach to it. This would look really good with all of our products.

Here is the above vent in action.  Project nearing completion.  This are all painted in place for a very uniform look.

A caution:  If you intend to have the vent sit on top of a BRUTAL tile, avoid this type, as it will distort the the edges over time.  The best choice is vents with a flat surround like in the two previous pictures.

 Fire Sprinklers: When installing BRUTAL tiles in ceilings with sprinkler systems, cut the hole at least 1/4" diameter larger than the sprinkler escutcheon/trim (leaving a visible 1/8" gap around the edge). This allows the tile to fall away from the ceiling during a fire and not foul the sprinkler system.