Without a doubt, the acoustic designs of all architectural spaces are absolutely critical to their success.
Aural architecture is about how we listen to buildings, the sound within buildings and how we react to them
Trevor Cox, University of Salford
Get the acoustics right and your students will be taught in an environment where they can concentrate and clearly hear their teacher, your hospital patients will be able to get the rest they need to enable their body to heal, and your music fans will leave the venue raving about the awesome concert they just attended where they felt enveloped by the sound from the band.
Get the acoustics wrong and your students will struggle to understand their lessons to the detriment of their exam results, your hospital patients will have to stay a little longer as their bodies have been unable to recuperate and heal, and your music fans will leave feeling disappointed by a concert where they couldn't understand the singer and their experience was disturbed by noise from outside.
Put simply, acoustics is something that people barely notice when its done well but it can have an extremely detrimental effect on a space when it hasn't been properly considered.
What Makes Good Acoustics?
Unfortunately the answer isn't a simple one as it really depends on how the space will be used. To illustrate this I've outlined the following completely opposing spaces, which each have awesome acoustic environments that are suited to their purpose:
A Cathedral
The picture below is of my home town Cathedral in Lincoln and it's a stunning example of a highly diffuse and reverberant space which is perfect for orchestral music and singing.
The high level of reverberation which provides the deep, rich sound is due to the acoustically reflective concrete finish and the diffusion provided by both the detailed architectural features of varying sizes and depths and the concave shapes of the vaults. The vaults are covered with architectural rib detailing which prevents any sound reflecting off them from being focussed on areas of the floor below and the lower portions of the columns have detailed convex finishes which further diffuse any sound.
Built in 1072 this cathedral was constructed at a time when little was understood about acoustic design although it appears that medieval architects had sound in mind when they made their design choices, which typically incorporated resonating vases known as amphorae into the walls or domes to amplify the sound out to the congregation.
An Anechoic Chamber
In stark contrast to the highly reverberant Lincoln Cathedral is an anechoic chamber , as shown in the image below.
An anechoic chamber is an echo free space designed to completely absorb all sound reflections. These spaces are also often isolated to prevent any external sound from breaking in which, in effect, simulates the feeling of being inside an infinitely large room.
In these spaces there is no reverberation at all. The walls, floor and ceiling are all covered with acoustically absorbent foam that takes all of the energy from any sound waves hitting it and turns it into heat energy, which is subsequently dissipated within the foam.
Spaces such as this can be so quiet that it's possible to hear your own blood pumping around your body and, as such, they are usually pretty uncomfortable spaces to be for any prolonged periods of time.
You would usually find anechoic chambers in university's and testing laboratories where they are used to measure the direct sound emitted by a piece of equipment without the interference of sound reflections from the walls, floor and ceiling of the measurement space.
Given the starkly contrasting acoustics of these two spaces it can, therefore be seen that achieving the perfect acoustics in any given space, whatever its purpose, is not a simple undertaking and, if the Client requires an acoustic environment that's suitable to the intended use of their space, it's essential that they appoint an Acoustic Consultant to incorporate the appropriate acoustic finishes into every aspect of the design.
What Is an Acoustic Consultants Role?
At Artizan, we help our clients to achieve their acoustical aspirations by managing noise and vibration at all stages of their development, from inception to completion.
In terms of Architectural spaces this means that we assist Developers, Architects and Engineers to incorporate Acoustic finishes and treatments in each of the following aspects of their designs:
The Building façade: this element is acoustically critical to minimise any excessive external noise break-in to noise sensitive spaces such as classrooms, hospital wards, auditoriums, hotel guestrooms and residences.
Internal Walls, Floors and Ceilings: In order to prevent building occupants from being disturbed by each other it's essential that the sound insulation afforded by the walls, floors and ceilings between private spaces such as auditoria, offices, conference rooms, residential apartments and hotel guestrooms is acoustically appropriate
Internal Room Acoustics: In spaces where high levels of speech intelligibility and/or audibility are required it is necessary to consider all of the internal architectural finishes to achieve an appropriate level reverberation - likely to be somewhere between an anechoic chamber and a Cathedral!
“We have significant experience on a wide variety of projects from reducing the impact of transportation noise to creating concert halls with beautiful sound.”
Sarah Huskie - Director of Acoustics - Artizan Group
About The Author
Sarah has been involved with the provision of acoustic design for various schemes within the public and private sectors for over 25 years and, having worked on a full range of commissions from transport planning to opera house and theatre design and construction, Sarah is fully conversant with all forms of contract procurement and delivery.
Sarah led the Middle East Acoustics team for WSP between 2011 and 2020 and prior to that she worked for both WSP and Arup in the UK and Singapore in senior roles.
Sarah is well practised in leading and working as part of an integrated team and has a significant and impressive track record of evaluating and producing optimum solutions as designs progress and evolve. This practice has enabled the realisation of innovative and cost-effective acoustic designs and has successfully taken a multitude of projects across the globe from conception to completion.
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