Acoustic problems and disturbance in a room are often derived from either long reverberation times, which give a room an echoey feel or from noises outside the room and poor sound insulation. As it travels, sound dissipates. If it hits a hard surface it can reflect. The reflection can lead to a build-up of sound energy. If it hits a soft surface some of the energy can be absorbed. As the sound encounters objects such as walls, the energy passing through them is reduced. Research has shown that ceilings have the biggest impact on the acoustic quality of open plan offices.

Sound can be controlled in three distinct ways:

• Absorption, which diffuses reverberation within the space.
• Block, which deals with the control of sound from one space to another by insulation and solid objects.
• Cover, which masks the sound.

In order to reduce reverberation times, we would propose using a selection of the products from our partners shown here. These products exhibit sound absorbing properties. These can be used in conjunction with sound absorbing ceiling tiles, carpets, desk mounted screens and free-standing structures such as storage units to help reduce overall noise levels in the open plan environment.

Abstracta

Artemide

Baux

BuzziSpace

Creatif

Johanson Design