A crop of Australian designers have designed a ‘sound makeover’ for their favourite restaurant as part of a campaign to highlight the importance of great restaurant acoustics.
The Dine Hear campaign, launched by acoustic linings company Knauf, shone a light on the rise of minimalist décor being used in restaurants and how it affects not only the acoustics, but the overall customer experience.
“Imagine having to yell at your date across the table because it’s the only way they can hear you, or ordering the vegetarian risotto and they bring you out the beef instead?” said Stephanie Olsen, Knauf’s Senior Product Manager.
Phoebe Baker-Gabb of Melbourne’s Foolscap Studio came up with a noise reducing solution and was announced the winner of the inaugural Knauf Dine Hear Acoustic Designer 2013, winning a $5,000 prize.
Foolscap Studio’s makeover concept for the Golden Fields restaurant in Melbourne’s St. Kilda addressed a problem common to many modern restaurants.
“The restaurant space is clad with hard, smooth materials,” Baker-Gabb said.
“These surfaces cause sound to reverberate around the narrow space making it difficult for diners to hear one another and negatively affecting their experience.”
To solve that problem, Foolscap Studio’s design concept worked with Golden Fields’ beautiful aesthetics to create a stylistic and “fractured” acoustic ceiling.
