FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
RSK Acoustics Associate Director Thomas Goose explains how facilities managers must adapt their office spaces to handle the demands of more flexible working patterns and better suit the different needs of employees
Post-COVID it is clear that the office is not dead, but it will never be the same as before. Companies are increasingly looking for office spaces that provide areas for lively, collaborative work, emphasising the team and social culture of the office, while needing quiet spaces for more focused work. Modern office fit-outs are trending towards more open, collaborative spaces, and a greater consideration of acoustics is crucial within these designs. It must be easy for people to speak to one another within the office, as well as for the space to have options for taking calls or hosting meetings without disturbing others around them.
Three aspects of acoustics – ambient sound levels, sound transfer between spaces and reverberation – are the main factors in offices. The relationship among these three aspects determines the speech intelligibility within and between different areas: high speech intelligibility between people in conversation makes it easier to communicate, but low speech intelligibility from a nearby conversation improves privacy and makes it easier to focus on individual tasks.
MULTIPLE ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENTS
When it comes to work requirements, meetings often require a private space. Whether held among HR personnel, board members or the finance team, meetings are often best served by a space that enables those present to discuss confidential matters away from others in the office, and this calls for an acoustically isolated space.
A larger, open-plan space can be left relatively undampened to create a space that feels lively and busy, suitable for collaborative working and socialising. This is also an ideal location for tea and coffee facilities provided that suitably quiet machines can be sourced (such as those with a Quiet Mark certification).
Lastly, open-plan but secluded areas with ceiling panels and acoustic screens can provide a good flexible space for work where some ambient noise exists but that is still conducive to focused or quiet work. Multiple acoustic zones can enable occupants to switch from collaboration to independent work several times in a working day, so adaptability is vital.
More recently, awareness of neurodiversity in adults has begun to increase, bringing with it an understanding that many people learn, understand and process information in a variety of ways. Much research, including an informal survey within RSK’s own Neurodiversity Network, has highlighted that sound can be particularly distracting to neurodivergent people. This often includes the background noise from mechanical ventilation or open windows. The former tends towards a dull but constant ‘hum’ or ‘rumble’ tone, while the latter can be less tonal but lead to infrequent and random disruption from car horns, planes or other outside noises. Either can be disruptive to different groups of people, throwing them off their focus and making it difficult to get back in the ‘zone’.
SOUND PROOFING
Facilities that have yet to be fully finished or fitted-out stand to gain the most from these acoustic considerations, as there is greater scope to use built-in cavity insulation to create ‘quiet rooms’ including walls with good sound insulation (to adjacent spaces) and absorption (to control reverberation within the room), as well as a reflecting ceiling that makes it easy to hold a conversation across a meeting table while minimising audibility in other spaces.
Existing office spaces are more challenging, but generally most medium office buildings already come with at least one meeting room. As long as there is a room that can accommodate work, it is possible to add additional sound absorption and increase wall linings to create a quieter space for those who need it.
Where there is no separate space, or in smaller offices or co-working spaces it may not be possible to use a dedicated room for quiet work, a higher degree of sound transfer is unavoidable and compromise will be necessary. Room dividers can be used to temporarily create slightly quieter or secluded areas, such as when meetings are scheduled, but, especially for confidential or sensitive topics, these aren’t ideal. Acoustically absorptive ceiling panels can also be used to reduce the distance that noise travels, enabling you to create a quieter area on one side of the office.
Alternatively, freestanding ‘meeting pods’ or ‘phone booths’ can be installed which are increasingly seen in airports and train stations to give business travellers a quiet area for working. The drawbacks of these are that they are typically small and designed for one or two people only, and their small size limits their sound-isolating material, meaning that they are not as flexible or as quiet as a dedicated room.
Ideally, each office would have a range of acoustic environments: an open space where noise travels, which feels lively and encourages casual conversation and the free sharing of ideas, as well as separate meeting rooms, which offer privacy and a place for quiet conversation, and balanced working areas, where ambient noise is neither disruptive nor off-putting. Getting this right is crucial in ensuring employees can work at their best, as well as empowering them with choices of where to work in an increasingly hybridised world.
