The open-plan office layout has been trending for over a decade now. Moving away from floorplans with individual cubicles, many of today’s offices have workstations, conference areas and lunchrooms overlapping in one multi-purpose space.
While the open plan model encourages teamwork, provides space flexibility, and can often be cost-effective, these layouts can simultaneously create the perfect acoustic storm. Employee concentration must compete with the sound of neighbouring conversations, kitchen noises, printers, and air vents, which is then echoed throughout the space. For confidential meetings and conversations, the carrying of sound can also cause problems around privacy.
A recent study by Oxford Economics concluded that noise pollution in open plan offices has reached “epidemic levels,” with 63% of employees stating that they lack quiet space for work, which in turn has a “negative effect on their productivity, satisfaction, and well-being.”
The report also found that employees affected by noise pollution in office environments are more likely to say they may leave their job in the next six months, with acoustic problems attributed as the leading source of dissatisfaction within the environmental conditions of an office.
Acoustic Ceiling Clouds
Fracture Acoustic Wall Tiles
QuietSpan™ Ceiling Baffles
Carpet Tiles
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Using carefully selected acoustic materials we can reduce background noise, control reverberation times, and improve speech intelligibility. An effectively optimised office soundscape can therefore support collaboration without affecting the productivity, concentration, and wellbeing of others; allowing staff to feel comfortable within their work environment.
Acoufelt offers a full suite of interior soundcaping products for the floor, wall and ceiling, as well as additional services including acoustic consultations, furniture removal, delivery and installation. We also offer custom design options across each of our soundscaping collections.
Depending on the ceiling system available to you, Acoufelt offers a mix of practical, easy-install acoustic ceiling products.
Ceiling products are particularly useful in workspaces, like open-plan offices, where the perimeter surfaces are far removed from the central working environment. For rooms with a ceiling grid system, drop-in ceiling tiles are a simple but effective solution, offering an NRC of up to 1.00 when installed with an airgap. For rooms requiring a more targeted approach – such as a noisy printer or collaborative meeting zone – ceiling clouds or baffles can be hung directly above, offering a large surface area for acoustic absorption.
Walls offer many opportunities for acoustic treatment with Acoufelt’s range of wall products; available in a wealth of sizes, colors, prints, cuts, and designs.
Depending on your acoustic and aesthetic needs, select from our regular panels, printed panels, wall shapes or wall tiles. Sheets of regular panels are effective for sound generated by voice, and should be installed to sit at or above head height. For the best acoustic results, install panels on adjacent walls at least two metres high.
For spaces requiring a more flexible solution, opt for shapes or wall tiles, which can be quickly and easily installed around glass and other wall fixtures. Designers can also select from our printed collections, designed to mimic the look of fashionable textures including wood, marble and concrete.
The floor often represents the largest practical surface for acoustic treatment. Installing acoustic carpet tiles can be advantageous in multi-level spaces to absorb sounds of footfall, as well as other mid-frequency sounds. Tiles can also be installed in high-traffic areas such as corridors and entrances where full coverage is not appropriate.
The highest performing commercially graded acoustic carpet tiles in the Acoufelt flooring range are our QuietBack™ tiles. QuietBack™ carpet tiles offer a minimum NRC of 0.35, and are offered across a range of designs, colorways and thicknesses. These carpet tiles have also been designed to be comfortable underfoot, and have a backing made from minimum 80% recycled PET material.
Our most popular carpet tile collections for the commercial sector include ’Borough’, ‘Scatter’ and ‘Seven Seas’.
