17. Sep. 2008
More productive workplaces through good acoustics …Phones ringing, colleagues chatting, noisy printers and maybe even music on the radio – who doesn’t find it difficult to concentrate in an office like that? |
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It is a very narrow bandwidth from what is (barely) tolerable background noise to becoming a disturbing noise factor. And above all it is subjective. The careful acoustic design of a room is increasingly important, and in particular in open plan offices. Noise and background noises in the office are a stress factor that should not be neglected as it impairs well being, concentration, creativity and ability of the workforce considerably. Modern construction methods use hard materials and create flat surfaces that represent a further challenge with regards to acoustic quality. However, a well thought through and converted acoustic design for interior rooms can contribute significantly towards a pleasant working environment. Noise-Induced Stress – Affects One in Three "The job actually wouldn’t have been that bad", explains Sophia over dinner to her friends, "but the constant noise was just intolerable." Sophie is not alone. Surveys have revealed that every third employed person is exposed to sickening noise at work. This does not just apply to employees in industrial or commercial companies, but also to those working in offices. The consequence is that noise in the office can reduce performance by up to 20%, errors are more likely to occur and motivation levels usually fall. Studies have shown that employees in loud offices are up to 40% less likely to attempt to solve technical or difficult problems. Long-term noise leads to long-term stress. This not only hinders one from concentrating, but also overloads the cardiovascular system, while weakening the immune system. In the worst case this can lead to burn-out and depression. Modern Office Environments Acoustics are particularly worth of being considered in the context of a modern office. Open Offices are becoming more and more popular. In light of the increasing trend of creating offices that look like city environments, the requirements are becoming more complicated. Instead of dividing the entire floor into uniform zones, there is diversity and variety on every level. Multiple functions and different work processes take place in parallel and next to one another. Communication alternates between loud and quiet, is concentrated and compressed within the team or in the "think-tank". Whether a single work space, seminar room, shared office or meeting room – modern offices are urban and multi-cultural. Hearing and Seeing Noise The main objective is therefore to create a pleasant acoustic indoor climate, where people can work on their own or as part of a team without being disturbed by frequent telephone calls. This is where speech intelligibility and reverberation come into play. Speech intelligibility is influenced by background noise, the relationship between speech signals and background noise, and the volume and shape of the room. Reverberation time is the important factor when optimizing acoustic quality. Generally, the shorter the reverberation time, the better the speech intelligibility in the room. Closed off rooms should have a reverberation time of between 0.3 and 1 second. Open spaces on the other hand require a higher reverberation time in order to minimise speech intelligibility and to have an effect on the widely distributed noise level. Even the visual component plays a role. Footsteps, voices or other noises behind closed doors and walls can lead instinctively to disturbance. Who is that? What are they saying? What is wrong? Transparency can eliminate that, as visible and familiar sound sources create less uneasiness than invisible ones. Insulate or Absorb? While insulation prevents sound from penetrating walls, absorption means that sound is reflected from walls less intensively. A dividing wall can be sound insulating but also have a poor absorption value. The same applies the other way around. While the sound insulation between rooms in smaller offices is as well-balanced as possible, in open-plan offices the degree of sound absorption plays an important role in the environmental conditions, speech intelligibility and reverberation time. + Pro Sound Insulation For certain areas where confidentiality is required (personnel office, management level, confidential discussions with customers or focused individual work), there is a greater requirement for sound insulation. It should not be possible to understand what somebody is saying across the office, in a neighbouring office or in the corridor. It should be noted that single impulse sounds (such as a telephone or talking) are considered to be far more disturbing in all office spaces than a continual noise. Therefore the basic noise level in the affected areas should be upheld through appropriate means, whereby single noises are overlaid and are less disturbing. The suitable term to describe this effect and the technical solution is `soundmasking´. + Pro Sound Absorption A "reverberant" room impedes speech intelligibility within the room and puts pressure on the ability to concentrate. However, rooms where there is too much insulation can be just as unpleasant, as they can sound hollow and empty. The effect of using sound-absorbing surfaces reduces the range, meaning that acoustically-effective materials have a particularly great effect in the close-up range of a sound source. As a general rule of thumb, there should always be two ‘soft’ surfaces built into the room, for example the floor and ceiling or the floor and wall. Because sound always tries to penetrate a wall by the route with less resistance, even high quality constructions of individual components can only marginally increase the overall resistance, while connection joints, butt joints, door leaves as well as their notches and glazing offer significantly less value. Fine Tuning is Recommended Fine tuning is often the term used for striking the optimal balance with the right specialists. The ceiling, floor, joints and doors right through to the facade must create one well-tuned unit that not only takes into consideration the legal minimum sizes, but ideally also considers the subjective sensitivities of users. The aim of all acoustically-effective surfaces and their arrangement within the room is to achieve a good indoor climate. Flexible dividing wall systems, movable walls and other room-dividing elements can be used to insulate or absorb sound. Special surfaces support this effect. Bene offer an attractive range of products that satisfy the great acoustic requirements in the office. Soft Cells by Kvadrat Companies Kvadrat and Art Andersen have developed an innovative building component that influences light, space and acoustics in equal measure. A double layer of tensioned textiles controls the absorption of noises and the transfer of light and colour. The empty spaces between and behind the textile layers as well as the internal geometry of the rooms ensure optimal acoustics within the most important frequency range from 200 – 400 Hz. The Soft Cells system by Kvadrat creates a pleasant working environment through the improved sound effect. Acoustic Panels by Ruckstuhl The construction and materials that are used in the acoustic panel collection by Ruckstuhl are highly specialised and absorb sound in the entire frequency range. The surfaces from pure wool felt in muted colours ensure a warm and harmonious ambience. Soundwaves by Offecct Each panel in the Soundwaves series by Offecct has been designed for a particular acoustic function. The wall panels can be flexibly combined and adapted to the basis of the room. The combination of functionality, creative styling and appealing aesthetics are what make the acoustic panel an attractive design element both visually and acoustically. Brigitte Schedl-Richter |
  Offecct, Serie Soundwave
 Offecct, Serie Soundwave
 Kvadrat, Soft-Cells
 Ruckstuhl, Kollektion Pannello
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