Nordic acoustic consultancy firms investigate open plan acoustics
"Sound design of open plan offices" is a Nordic research initiative, partly financed by the Nordic Innovation Center to identify room acoustic parameters and measurement methodology for open-plan offices. The objective is to guarantee an appropriate sound environment for open plan office workers. This includes extensive case studies of typical open plan offices in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Under the coming two years, the project will involve open plan and room acoustics specialists from five Nordic acoustic consultancy firms Helimäki Ltd, Delta Acoustics, Brekke & Strand, Erling Nilsson Akustik and Ingemansson Technology
Ecophon is initiative taker and owner of the project, to be ended 2008.
Project Manager is Anna Berglöw, Ingemansson Technology.
Communication of the findings to the architect profession as well as open office end-user organisations are important aspects of the project.
Extracts from project definition
"An increasing proportion of the working population in the Nordic region works in an office environment. At present open-plan offices are being built in every Nordic country. But the acoustic challenges are being tackled quite differently in each country (...)"
"One of the main reasons for open-plan offices is to facilitate communication amongst staff. At the same time, sound disruption is one of the biggest problems. yet, there are no parameters to describe the sound environment in open-plan rooms. (...)"
"The traditional measurements for acoustics in rooms were created on the basis of cubic geometries with good dispersal of sound energy (diffusion). Tthese are not suitable for the special acoustic conditions provided by open-plan offices (non-diffuse sound fields, geometric complexity, multiplicity of sources and recipients, complex sound propagation patterns, etc.) (...)"
