As workplace design allows offices to foster collaboration and interaction as well as more people in smaller spaces, acoustics become even more important.
The Center for Workplace Strategy’s guide to achieving acoustic comfort in the contemporary office outlines 8 workplace design myths to watch out for:
1. MYTH: HIGH CUBICLE PARTITIONS MEAN LESS NOISE, MORE PRIVACY, AND FEWER DISTRACTIONS.
Reality:
Not true. Research shows that higher cubicle partitions block standing line of sight but provide small amounts of additional acoustical shielding.
In addition, the increase in ‘visual privacy’ may encourage people to talk louder which leads to more noise and disruption.
2. MYTH: IF A ROOM HAS A DOOR AND IT’S CLOSED, CONVERSATIONS WITHIN IT WILL BE PRIVATE.
Reality:
Never assume that a closed-door conversation is confidential without checking first. Unless they’ve been designed as ‘secure’, many rooms with closed doors still have sound leakage around doors, through walls, through the ceiling plenum, through ducting.
3. MYTH: I CAN HAVE PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS IN THE ‘OPEN WORKPLACE’ WORKPLACES.
Reality:
Speech is unintelligible to causal listeners only when the following conditions exist: voices are low; designers have ensured that relatively high levels of background sound levels are continuously present; and sound absorbing material has been applied to most surfaces above, behind and around the talkers so that conversation is not reflected into surrounding spaces. If a conversation is truly intended to be confidential, it should take place in a secure room.
4. MYTH: SPEECH PRIVACY MEANS “I CAN’T HEAR YOU TALKING” OR “I CAN’T SEE YOU WHEN YOU’RE TALKING.”
Reality:
Not true. Speech privacy is defined as “Techniques… to render speech unintelligible to casual listeners.”
5. MYTH: TO ISOLATE SOUND WITHIN ENCLOSED ROOMS, SLIDING DOORS ARE AS GOOD AS SWINGING DOORS.
Reality:
Not true. Most sliding doors are much less effective at blocking sound because hinged doors typically have better seals. This hold sound in – and keep them out – when they’re closed. Good sliding doors are available, but may cost more because they are harder to seal.
6. MYTH: IF ONLY MY CUBICLE WERE BIGGER – THEN I WOULD HAVE ACOUSTIC PRIVACY!
Reality:
To gain any appreciable speech privacy, workers would need to be seated at 2m+ on centres. This is unrealistic given the real estate and carbon footprint implications. Additionally, distance alone is an ineffective form of mitigation. As a rule of thumb, doubling the distance will only drop the decibel level a receiver hears from the sender by 5 points. This is barely perceptible.
7. MYTH: PLANTS IN THE OFFICE HELP CONTROL NOISE AND PROVIDE SPEECH PRIVACY.
Reality:
Not true. While plants provide many non-acoustical benefits, it would take a jungle of plants to absorb much sound.
8. MYTH: ADDRESSING ACOUSTICAL PROBLEMS WILL INTERFERE WITH ACCESS TO DAYLIGHT AND OTHER ‘GREEN DESIGN’ GOALS.
Reality:
Not true. You can proceed with every aspect of a low-energy ‘green design’ strategy—daylight, views, low partitions, raised floor, radiant ceiling—as long as you insist that speech privacy and acoustical comfort are serious issues that need to be dealt with. Planners, designers and engineers have a wide palette of sustainable acoustical products and solutions to choose from that can improve green outcomes.
For more ideas and advice on workplace design and better acoustics, download the guide to Acoustic Design for Workplaces.
