Materials and construction: Quiet please! Prototype for an acoustically optimized Workplace
Soundproof, highly absorptive rooms make us insecure and we perceive them as uncomfortable. In the science-based development of a prototype for internal phone rooms of a small business, we were able to determine that optimal acoustics are not only a question of DIN norms but also an individual, and hence diverse sense of acoustics. 4flow, our client, deals with global corporate logistics. This requires telephone communication between the more than 330 staff members and the clients and a high degree of concentration and confidentiality. Our firm was commissioned to design the Berlin headquarters and eleven small spaces for one to two staff members as phone rooms. The phone rooms were developed in close collaboration with the future users within numerous workshops. The rooms with their honeycomb shape can be accessed by a door facing the corridor. The interior of the boxes serves to maximize the freedom of how and where to sit. For questions regarding acoustics, we consulted with the Technical University of Berlin. We needed to consider two different parameters: Sound reduction index and reverberation time. The telephone boxes were supposed to feature appropriate soundproofing in order to enable confidential exchanges. While concert halls have a reverberation time of one second, our mini-spaces were supposed to be quiet already after half a second. A prototype phone room was built during the construction phase. Staff members were able to test the room, while TU Berlin conducted acoustical measurements and evaluations.
