Button-fix on the main stage at PWE 2026

Precision – adaptability – circularity: how offsite manufacturing and the right panel connectors work hand-in-hand.

[Talk delivered by Button-fix co-founder, Brian Watson, on 24 June 2026, followed by a discussion on offsite manufacturing and circularity with Chloe Donovan, Managing Director or Natural Building Systems, and chaired by Rachel England]

My personal story. I was trained as an engineer and product designer (back in the 1980s) and have spent the majority of my career working alongside architects, designers, makers and installers (like yourselves), designing products and furniture which make the fit-out process better, faster and more resilient. I’ve been involved with projects in airports, museums, offices, hospitals, domestic interiors – if you have passed through Heathrow or Gatwick or visited the British Museum, Tate or V&A galleries you will have seen some of our work. We’ve also worked for some of the biggest names in the office furniture world, and it was on the back of this experience that my colleagues and I set up Buttonfix Limited in 2012.

It was a simple idea for a panel fastener, but one we saw as pivotal in a bigger picture and an enabler of many things. It also targeted a sector that was starved of innovation. On one of the live projects I have just talked about, we had specified a hidden panel connector that had been around for decades, but it was horrible to install and, more significantly, it let us down badly in use. On the spot, we decided we could do something better. From one fastener in 2012, Button-fix is now a comprehensive range, sold in over 30 countries worldwide. The three designers, Tony, Philip and myself, are still a core part of the team (and with another 14 years’ experience under our belts), but we have added Julie’s sales & marketing expertise and Yas’ operations & logistics expertise to the mix.

If you want to find out how our products work, come and see us on stand E60 – it’s in the block just over there. I won’t overload you with the details now. Instead I want to focus on why?

Why did we develop Button-fix? What new approaches in the fit-out process can they enable?

This may seem a grand claim for a humble plastic connector that retails for £1 or less. Yes, our products are well-engineered, thoroughly tested and manufactured in the UK in state-of-the-art facilities. However, what’s important is the thinking behind them, the thought process that asks you to consider each assembly and disassembly step in the interior component’s lifecycle; an attention to detail and a commitment to doing things ‘right’.

Starting at the beginning of the cycle, where the panels are cut, or the furniture constructed, we can all agree that it is so much better to prepare as much as possible off-site, rather than under the hectic and sub-optimal conditions found on site. CNC machinery in the factory can produce components that are more accurate and better finished, creating the designer’s vision with digital precision.

In the factory it is also much easier to re-use off-cuts and correctly recycle the waste that can’t be used. We learnt this lesson many years ago, while designing for Sweden’s largest office furniture manufacturer. The Swedes were certainly well ahead of the curve in terms of sustainable manufacturing. Their woodworking waste helped to heat the local community in the depths of the bitter Swedish winter.

The ideal is to fully assemble the installation off-site in the workshop, check everything works as anticipated and meets the approval of stakeholders (and with all the tools on hand to make any adjustments, if necessary). These photos were taken in the workshops of one of our customers, Clan Innovations, not far from here, and show the test assembly of elements destined for a flagship retail interior.

But this process requires connectors that allow the installation to be assembled, then disassembled, reassembled again on site, then hold together robustly while delivering many years’ faithful service. And, of course, work completely invisibly as no client wants to see visible screws.

With offsite fabrication, I’m a firm believer that the scale of the components made in the factory should be suitable for transporting to site on pallets, handleable with a forklift and potentially carriable through doorways (particularly if it is on a refurbishment project). Even on new-build projects, ease of handling is an issue and I’ve been to huge construction sites in New Delhi where fit-out components have been carried by hand up numerous flights of stairs. In most cases, volumetric offsite construction really isn’t appropriate and who wants the hassle of a police escort when transporting whole-room modules to site?

When the (appropriately sized) component parts arrive on site, they need to be assembled and installed as swiftly and efficiently as possible. All Button-fix fasteners are complemented by Marker accessories, to help align on site the Button-fixes that hold the factory-made parts to the supporting structure. No need for precise measurement to achieve precision alignment.

For more complex installations, I would argue it is best to make the supporting chassis in the factory too, produced with the same digital precision as the fascia panels. Washrooms are a good example of where this approach pays dividends, as shown in the top images. Or, here, we can see the chassis beneath the retail feature wall from the previous slide.

The interior shell is rarely as dimensionally accurate and square as anticipated by the scheme designer, so it is good to have some wiggle-room. Effectively, you’re fitting a dimensionally perfect chassis into an imperfect space. All the packers and spacers where the chassis are anchored to the formation walls will be concealed once the fascia panels are installed. The users of the space will never know the secrets behind!

Digital precision pays dividends over the life of the installation too, as replacement panels can be reordered if accidentally damaged, safe in the knowledge that the new panel will fit perfectly and with minimal time out-of-service while it is installed. But, don’t worry if you don’t have digital records for the original panel being replaced; our Marker accessories will be useful again to determine the position of the fixings on the new panel, ensuring that they will mate precisely with the ones on the pre-existing structure.

This whole approach maximises the lifespan of the installation and keeps it up and running with the minimum of down-time for repairs. It also allows for the occasional cosmetic upgrade, without the need to replace the background structure, saving money and, equally importantly, reducing waste.

Changes in the demands on the installation can be accommodated too. Technology that has been concealed behind the panels can be more easily updated if the panel installation is demountable. And, in domestic settings, the installation can be reconfigured as the needs of the user/occupiers evolve over time. It all helps to put into practice the theoretical principles of lifetime homes.

This final image is taken from an insight article you can find on our website, written by my colleague Phil Hall. The ultimate goal is to eliminate the path where so much material ends up in landfill as a result of interior changes. Enabling the feedback loops of ‘repair’, ‘repurpose’ and ‘recycle’ will extend the ‘useful’ part of the timeline. We all want our interiors to be fresh and dynamic and relevant to the way we live now. Designing and making them with smart use of demountable connectors helps achieve this sustainably too.