Benefits for Office Building
Buildings with a good acoustic
environment will result in better
well-being and performance, being
not only beneficial for the employees,
but also increase the efficiency and
productivity of the company as a
whole.
It will also improve the company’s
popularity as a workplace, which
in turn can help you attract highly
qualified employees.
Green Strategies for Office Building
z
Establish green landscaping to
soften noisy external environ-
ments
z
Use of chilled beams rather
than fan-coil units to reduce
background sound
Benefits for Office Unit
Having a good accoustic environment
is integral to providing people with a
sense of well-being and satisfaction
about the office in which they work
every day.
A good working environment supports
people in both communication and
concentration.
Green Strategies for Office Unit
z
Identify the balance of concen-
tration and interaction among
the workers in the office to help
create zones
z
Carefully consider the effect on
neighboring workstations when
locating supporting activities
such as copier rooms, pantries
and entries to conference
rooms where a queue could be
anticipated – adjacent to large
conference rooms, for instance
z
Specify ceilings having a mini-
mumnoise reduction coefficient
(NRC) of 0.9 in open plan office
areas and NRC of 0.8 in meeting
rooms and training facilities.
In conference, meeting and
training facilities, provide noise
absorbing panels on 25% of the
walls with aminimumNRC of 0.8
z
Use of sound proofing material
for partition walls
z
Develop a layout strategy which
will locate incompatible func-
tions apart from each other
z
Provide a range of different work
spaces and allow staff flexibility
in their use to strike a balance
between openness and privacy
z
Cluster people who do the same
work together
Good Acoustic Environment
Overview
A loud volume generally has a long echo, and a long reverberation
amplifies noise and reduces speech intelligibility. In order to minimise
this effect, the space should be designed with better sound absorption.
In this connection, noise reduction can make for a more pleasant
atmosphere. Office environments are recommended to follow the design
criteria for unoccupied rooms:
Read more at:
1. British Standard Institution. BS 8233 Code of Pr
rd Organisation. ISO 3382.
BEAM Plus BI V1.0 IEQ 11
Criteria
• Internal Noise Level for
Offices: NC 40;
•
for
Offices: 0.6s
• Air-borne Noise Isolation for
Offices: STC 48
Type of area
Sub-type
Recommended design
sound level (dB(A))
Office type premises Modular offices and
conference rooms
40 (8 hours); 45 (5 min)
0.6 or below
Large landscaped
offices
45 (8 hours); 50 (5 min)
n/a
DESIGN STAGE
3.2.6 Good Acoustic Environment
Office
UNIT
Figure 3.2.26 POLLI-BRICKS Wall
(Source: Hong Kong Green Building Council)
Figure 3.2.27 POLLI-BRICKS Wall as Partition Wall
(Source: Hong Kong Green Building Council)
Figure 3.2.28 POLLI-BRICKS Wall Feature
(Source: Hong Kong Green Building Council)
Figure 3.2.29 Characteristics of POLLI-BRICKS
(Source: Hong Kong Green Building Council)
DESIGN STAGE
3.2.6 Good Acoustic Environment
Office
BUILDING
Office
UNIT
Case study of Hong
Kong Green Building
Council Office:
Sound Proof Partition Material
POLLI-BRICKS wall, 100% made from recycled
PET bottles (Polyethylene terephthalate), is
used to build the resource centre feature
wall as well as room partitions.
As an application for interior partitions, the
light, translucent and durable bricks offer
excellent acoustic and thermal insulation.
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