An open floor with a hard ceiling and a stone floor will resonate. The standard remedy is a grid of grey rafts overhead, which solves the problem and flattens the room noise at the same time. Here the sound absorption was written into the finishes schedule instead, so that the acoustic budget and the decorative budget became the same budget.
One problem, four different absorbers
The brief asked for something more specific than quiet. It asked that sound from the louder zones should not reach the focus zones, that traditional meeting spaces be treated with soft panelling, that planting be used to improve sound quality and that open spaces use furniture, plants or acoustic curtains to stop sound leaking. Four requirements, four different answers.
Behind the booths and at the ends of the long tables, a moulded panel in a warm clay tone with a deep repeating relief. Through the meeting hub, ribbed timber was installed, which scatters sound rather than swallowing it, and is the best instrument in a circulation space. In the entrance lounge, cork panels were fitted. Over the general workspace, baffles in blue and orange, because the one place the absorption could not be attached to a wall was in the middle of an open floorplate.
The panel has a face
The clay panel is worth close consideration. It is not flat board with fabric over it. The depth is doing two jobs simultaneously; it breaks up reflections at the wall, and it gives the eye a focus feature at the far end of a long floor. From a distance it reads as a woven texture. Close to, you can see it is manufactured piece, which is the difference between a finish and a product.
Three fabrics, not one
The specification carried three acoustic fabrics rather than a single house colour. A muted teal for the focus walls, chosen because it is calming and energising at once and suits a room where people think. A clay taupe for seating and panels, as the warm neutral that everything else sits against. And an accent, used sparingly. Once the absorber is allowed to be a colour decision, it becomes an integral part of the design.
Where it goes, and where it does not
Panelling was located where people sit for a length of time and talk quietly: booths, the ends of long tables, the walls behind soft seating. Circulation routes and the bays with the best views were left clear, as a panel in front of a window diminishes the surrounding aesthetic value.
Upholstery, planting and curtains do the rest
The banquettes are a popular and valuable addition to the space. A run of upholstered seating with a high back is an acoustic device as well as a place to sit, and it is one clients rarely object to. The same applies to heavy curtains, to rugs and the planting, which was specified partly for the out of office feeling it gives a working floor and also because of the sound improvement it provides.
An honest note
This does not replace a proper acoustic model on a difficult floor, and The Shard is a difficult floor. However when the model asks for absorption, there is a possible location and thus a identifiable solution for the client.
