A poorly designed open office is a recipe for bad acoustics.
Dead silence can be an intimidating working environment.
Some sound in any workplace is generally desirable: pleasing background sounds like the gentle, indecipherable babble of colleagues speaking, one’s own choice of music or perhaps the sounds of nature coming through an open window. However, much of the sound in typical workplaces is undesirable: ringing phones, electromechanical noise, other people’s music and so on. We call this undesirable sound “noise”.
It’s important to have a thorough understanding of how this unwanted noise affects people in working environments and how best to improve those spaces with optimal acoustic adjustments.
Sound is simply audible vibration conducted through a medium. In built spaces, there are two forms of conduction.
Airborne sound comprises sound generated within a room and transmitted through the air. Typically, this includes people talking, typing, walking and moving objects; phones ringing; noise from heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment; printers; and sound/music systems.
Structure-borne sound comprises sound generated by any physical impact on the building and transmitted through the structure itself, which typically includes footfalls in the office above, vibrations from heavy equipment such as an HVAC plant, and impact sound like drilling or hammering in adjacent rooms.
We measure the quantity of sound in decibels (dB), a logarithmic scale where an increase of 10 dB is perceived as a doubling of the sound level, or a reduction of 10 dB as a halving. 30 dB is very quiet – for example, a bedroom at night. A typical office is around 50-60 dB.