What is Architectural Acoustics?
— Definition
— Main Annoyances of a Bad Architectural Acoustics
— Adapt Your Room to Your Activities!
How to Ensure a Good Room Acoustics?
— A Good Room Acoustics, Not so Easy!
What Services Mecanum Can Offer You?
— Acoustic Comfort Assessment According to Well and LEED Construction Standards
— Rooms Sound Quality Evaluation Following ANSI, ISO or ASTM Standards
— Vibration Control on Noisy Equipment
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What is Architectural Acoustics?
Definition
For many, architectural acoustics applies to performance halls and large auditoriums. In fact, taking into account the acoustics of a room is essential to the comfort of the occupants. For example, a noisy restaurant can make conversations difficult and put off some customers who will hesitate to come back.
Main Annoyances of a Bad Architectural Acoustics
A study carried out by the University of Sydney [1] indicates that the main annoyance experienced by office occupants comes from sound privacy issues (nearly 60% of responses for open-air offices).
Other complaints relate to temperature, visual privacy, and noise level (nearly 30% of responses, again in the case of open-plan offices). This study is based on the analysis of nearly 47,000 questionnaires extracted from a database of the “Center for the built Environment” of Berkeley University, California.
[1] Kim J, de Dear R. 2013 Worplace satisfaction: The privacy-communication trade-off in Oppen-plan offices. Journal of Environmental Psychology. Doi 10.1016/j.jenvp. 2013.06.007
Adapt Your Room to Your Activities!
The acoustics of a room must be adapted to the activities taking place there. An executive office, a restaurant, a classroom, or a gymnasium will not be treated in the same way. Inadequate acoustics will cause certain discomfort for the occupants, a drop in productivity in offices or even learning problems in noisy and reverberant classrooms.
Construction standards such as LEED v4.1 or WELL v2 recommend acoustic performance criteria to overcome these problems.
How to Ensure a Good Room Acoustics?
A Good Room Acoustics, Not so Easy!
Achieving good acoustics is no coincidence. Even if it is possible to improve the acoustics of existing premises, taking acoustics into account from the design phase will make it possible to obtain better performance at a lower cost.
Different means must be implemented to ensure the good sound quality of a room. Mecanum specialists have a battery of tools to help you achieve your goals:
- Sound quality, insulation, and reverberation indexes measurements,
- Indoor acoustic simulation software,
- Sound detection and visualization with Mecanum’s LF-ANT 3D acoustic camera,
- Conception of quiet and performing HVAC systems.
What Services Mecanum Can Offer You?
Acoustic Comfort Assessment According to Well and LEED Construction Standards
These two standards specify acoustic performance levels to be achieved. Elements considered are the background noise, the sound privacy, the reverberation times in the premises, the quality of the partitions (STC, ASTC or Rw indices), the reduction of impact noise (IIC or AIIC)
Rooms Sound Quality Evaluation Following ANSI, ISO or ASTM Standards
- Speech Intelligibility Index (SII ANSI+ASA S3.5-197),
- Room Noise Quality Index (NC, RC or RNC ANSI+ASA S12.2-2019),
- Reverberation Time measurements (ISO 354),
- Sound Transmission Loss Measurements (Laboratory testing following ASTM E90-09 or in situ measurements (ASTM E336-09) and calculation of STC or ASTC index (ASTM E413-04),
- Measurement of the transmission loss of facades according to the standard (ASTM E966-04) and calculation of the OITC index ASTM E1332-90,
- Measurement of impact Noise Transmission following ASTM E1007-14 and calculation of the AIIC (or IIC) index following ASTM E336-14,
- HVAC Noise evaluation following ASHRAE standards.
Vibration Control on Noisy Equipment
Electrical power transformers or ventilation and refrigeration systems are classical causes of noise and vibration problems in commercial or institutional buildings.
Mecanum’s experts can help you detect faulty equipment and offer effective technical solutions to fix your problems.
