A new international standard has recently been released focusing on one of the most complex indoor sound environments, the open office. For this very same reason this is one of our favourite subjects and therefore we are happy to update you on the new ISO 22955. So what is its scope and how can it […]
ISO 22955:2021 Acoustics — Acoustic quality of open office spaces This newly released international standard focuses on open office spaces. Office spaces are notoriously difficult to design from an acoustic standpoint. ISO 22955 will provide much needed clarity and guidance for acoustic designers. By dividing the activities of office work into subcategories and detailing all […]
“The soundscape of the average modern hospital is a cacophony of overlapping beeps, blats and pings from monitors, roaring ventilation systems, raucous bursts of conversation from visitors, patients and the nursing station, carts rumbling down hallways, televisions, phones. Sleep, essential to the healing process, is available primarily through medications. Even medicated sleep can be elusive, […]
Effects of COVID-19 on children’s literacy levels worldwide After COVID-19 struck in January 2020, schools were some of the first institutions to close as wave upon wave of restrictions and lockdowns were applied globally. With such a sudden discontinuation of many children’s schooling, the effects of the pandemic on the learning and development have been […]
The Nordic Acoustic Association and the Norwegian Acoustical Society invited scientists and engineers to attend the Baltic-Nordic Acoustic Meeting for 2021 this week and despite an online set-up the program consisted of keynote lectures, invited and contributed papers in structured parallel sessions. Some of the really interesting presentations are described here but you can find […]
One of our editors in the Czech Republic (CZ), Iveta Kralova, was recently part of an intervention study in an eye clinic in Hradec Kralove. Here follows her experience in a country where acoustic standards for healthcare are lacking and where a lot of buildings are too loud to heal. Many studies have already shown […]
A few years ago, at the Healthcare Estates Conference in Manchester, UK John Criddle from Evelina London Children’s Hospital and Martin Jones from Art in Site had a talk about how they designed the emergency dept. with the use of illustrative and digital arts to guide, reassure and role model behaviors. Their talk was called: Taking the ‘OUCH’ out of […]
Recover in noise A recent study published in Critical Care Explorations revealed potential relationship between acoustic interruptions and worsened perceived sleep quality. One of the results was that patients were exposed to 4,861 acoustic interruptions in total during the night! The conception that critically ill patients are too ill to reflect on their sound environment […]
Is the open office a thing of the past? How can verbal communication be the main reason for its existence and simultaneously its biggest acoustic problem? We give you the answers and the solutions in this series on acoustic design of open offices. In this three-part Design Dive series, we, as always, bring you both […]
Shopping centers are frequented not only by people with commercial intentions, but also by visitors with social and leisure purposes. The latter implies that there is often a large circulation in the different spaces of the shopping centre, which are generally large, open-plan, and with high ceilings. In addition to that, there is also often […]