Background
Jewish Care sought to enhance the acoustic performance of the community spaces at the new proposed Jewish Community Centre in Redbridge. Anderson Acoustics was commissioned by Fed3 Projects via the interior designers Park Grove, to provide room acoustic design advice to improve listening conditions in the main hall, cafe, breakout rooms, quiet rooms and day care lounges.
What we did
Multiple people speaking in a room can cause high noise levels, when the rising occupancy noise level from people speaking means that everyone raises their voice, leading to a spiralling increase activity noise level (known as the Lombard Effect).
Coupled with a low ceiling height which limits the room volume, even moderately reverberant spaces can result in a significant build-up in occupied noise levels which contributes to poor speech clarity and intelligibility. This leads to an uncomfortable listening environment and poor communication for all users, but particularly those with special hearing and listening needs (such as older people with hearing loss and dementia).
Our assessment considered reverberation time (RT) and acoustic capacity to improve control of occupancy noise and create relaxed spaces for speaking and listening, based on the anticipated number of occupants. We also provided advice on moveable walls between event spaces to ensure reasonable speech privacy between spaces.
Reverberation time can be controlled by the installation of sound absorbent treatments in strategic locations. Proposed finishes included a perforated plasterboard ceiling, sound absorbent wall panels, suspended rafts and sound absorbent lighting features, plus acoustic screens, upholstered furniture and curtains.
The proposed acoustic treatments will ensure that speech is audible and ensure that target reverberation times are achieved while maintaining the aesthetic appeal of the spaces.
