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Peter Zumthor, Swiss architect, sometimes called “the poet of the silence”, was awarded a Pritzker Prize – one of the highest recognitions for architects. Zumthor is known for his approach to architecture, which assumes multisensual perception. While some have called his architecture quiet, his buildings masterfully assert their presence, engaging many of our senses, not just our sight but also our senses of touch, hearing and smell.
Dutch sports teachers (PE teachers) sued their employers for suffering serious hearing impairment because of working in a poor acoustic environment. The schools that employed the PE teachers compensate the teachers financially.
The Dutch Royal Society of Physical Exercise Teachers (KVLO) http://www.kvlo.nl/ supports the teachers in this matter.
Continue reading "Poor room acoustics impairs sport teachers´ hearing" »
Four architecture students from KTH in Stockholm received the first price at the the Future Workplace contest. Their proposal called “Absorbing Transparency” convinced the jury.
High demands on acoustics
They choose to create a room structure with high acoustic features to secure that transparency does not lead to an increase of soundlevels. The focus is on creating a mentally relaxing environment, both visually as well as acoustically. The design should provide the activities that are sensitive to or generate noise to be limited by the room interior.
Continue reading "ABSORBING TRANSPARENCY - A WINNING THEME" »
In a Swedish TV program noisy school canteens were on the agenda. A resent study on noise levels in school canteens were referred to. It was mentioned that half of the pupils in the Swedish comprehensive schools feel bad due to school canteen noise levels. Children may get stomach pain; head ache or feel more stressed due to noise. The child reporter interviewed an adult regarding what you can do about it. The child concluded the interview with stating that also wall absorbers are needed! Here you can read more about it (in Swedish) and here is the checklist as a pdf.
Continue reading "Swedish Television publish checklist for quieter school canteens" »
A Canadian guide defines best practice in sustainable, public financed office buildings. In section 2.9.1, named "Flanking and Isolation", performance criteria and methods are addressed:
Continue reading "True insulation performance between offices - Canadian guidelines" »
Hospitals are extremely noisy, and noise levels in most hospitals far exceed recommended guidelines. The high noise levels, as well as peak noise levels in hospitals, have serious impacts on patient and staff outcomes.
Research suggests that environmental interventions may be effective in reducing the noise levels in hospitals and improving the acoustical environment. Key interventions include a.o. installing high-performance sound-absorbing ceiling tiles.
These are just some of the conclusions from the recent paper called "Sound Control for Improved Outcomes in Healthcare Settings" by Anjali Joseph and Roger Ulrich (both Center for Health Systems and Design). If you want to read more about noise control through absorbing ceiling systems and other measures please read the full article
As a complement to an acoustic ceiling it is sometimes useful to attach absorbing panels to the walls. This could be the case when a disturbing flutter echo is present or expected and gives an unpleasant coloration to the sound. Another situation is when the amount of sound diffusing objects is small, resulting in long reverberation times. A sometimes ignored fact is that the main complaint in many public premises for education and child-minding is the high noise levels. In these cases it is not enough to only consider that a certain reverberation time is achieved. Different acoustical treatment can give similar reverberation time but significant differences concerning the ability of reducing the disturbing noise. Concerning noise levels in rooms and it's relation to the absorption it is mainly the amount of absorption that is of importance. This relation is not true for the reverberation time. Thus, wall absorbers are an excellent tool to create good and pleasant acoustical environments. Attaching the wall absorbers in a non-regular pattern could also be a benefit since this will increase the sound diffusion in the rooms which is desirable and good for the acoustics.
More information about wall absorbers? Continue here
In the latest issue of Acta Acoustica united with Acustica, Eddy Gerritsen (TNO) discusses engineering methods for the prediction of reverberation time and sound pressure levels in spaces with non-diffuse conditions. The assumptions and theoretical considerations behind the formulas in EN 12354-6 annex D are clarified.
There is definitely a need for engineering models to estimate reverberation time and sound levels in this large group of rooms where the acoustical treatment consist of an absorbent ceiling. The discrepancy between Sabine calculations and measurements in e.g. classrooms, offices, day-care centres among others, are well documented. So, if you are interested in this matter I recommend you to read the article.
The abstract is available here.
Thanks to an ambitious education initiative from the Swedish government, deaf children in Banja Luka, Bosnia, were provided with cochlea implants.
As soon as they have been able to hear, the very poor room acoustics of the school became an obstacle to the children's further learning.
Continue reading "When children start to hear, room acoustics becomes critical" »
When the Dutch energy company Essent refurbished one of their open plan offices, it was decided that the room should be separated in several zones.
In 1999, acoustics expertise (incl. Delta and Carl Bro) was contacted to evaluate, measure and simulate the acoustics of the glass-roofed Sculpture Street at the New Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Continue reading "From 11 to 3 s - extreme reverberation control" »
The acoustic treatment of the Henriksberg pub and restaurant won a prize for best practice at European Noise at Work Summit, 12 December 2005. Watch the video of the presentation.
View the Ecophon solution for the project (NB: different conditions might require adjustments of the solution. We recommend to involve an acoustics consultant)
World Health Organization - Guidelines for Community Noise is a systematic review of scientific evidence regarding noise, annoyance, speech and hearing impairment. The document provides also relevant guideline values.
Warehouses being transformed into restaurants, workshops into boutiques and country houses becoming conference centres – there are many examples of completely new fields of use for fine old properties that possess genuine charm.
However, long reverberation time and poor speech intelligibility is often a fact in these premises!
In such premises, specific room acoustics solutions are needed.
Continue reading "Discrete acoustic solution for old and genuine premises" »
Space is not only visual. For acoustician B. Delage, space can be seen as an interaction of both an acoustical and a visual dimension. In this article, he develops his approach around an architectural icon, the Kidosaki House, by Tadao Ando: a good example of how sounds in architecture can touch and provoke us.
Read the article
Author: B. Delage, www.viasonora.com
Publication: Earshot, # 3, UK, 2002
This interaction is a central issue in International Standard ISO 17624:2004, Acoustics — Guidelines for noise control in offices and workrooms by means of acoustical screens. Besides silencers and enclosures (see ISO 14163 and ISO 15667, respectively), indoor screens are used as secondary means of noise control in workrooms and offices. Among others, it says “It is the effectiveness of these measures (sound absorbers), and the fittings of the room, which determine the amount by which the insertion sound pressure level difference of a screen in the room is less than the free-field screen sound attenuation”
In a large project in the UK Ecophon Master E was used both for refurbishment and to create new science labs. This product has an excellent sound absorption in combination with efficiency at absorbing low frequency sound.
Read the full story>>
Continue reading "Ecophon Master E in science labs – Scientific test for Ecophon panels" »
