Anne Greaves (asker) Jan 16, 2015:

Yes thanks to both. In fact my entry wasn't clear, the link was meant to indicate that these weren't tiles rather than they were!

Lori Cirefice Jan 16, 2015:

bac métallique just to confirm what Tony said about sheet metal

Tony M Jan 15, 2015:

@ Asker Ah, that's the sort of thing! They're not tiles, though, but fabricated sheet-metal 'panels' — you can see in the picture they have 'thickness', but it's in fact only a turned-up edge, the whole thing is made of (relatively) thin sheet metal.

Anne Greaves (asker) Jan 15, 2015:

Thanks Tony. Have found swing-down ceilings, but this seems to refer to tiles rather than pans or units. As in: http://www.batiweb.com/produits_btp/faux-plafond-metallique-...

Tony M Jan 15, 2015:

Circulation BTW, I think you can use 'circulation' in EN too — as you say, it means places used for people to move around, e.g. corridors etc.

Tony M Jan 15, 2015:

Horrible one! I had this one myself not so long ago, and never did really get a satisfactory answer. It seems these are the (often perforated) metal ceiling panels, in the form of a sort of tray, that are used for suspended ceilings in certain areas. The type I had weren't described as 'basculant', but they certainly were of the hinged variety — presumably to allow easy access to cables, HVAC ducts, etc.

I ended up using 'metal ceiling panels' (I did wonder about 'pans'?), but was really not very happy with that as a solution.