Role of Interior Designer in Developing Office Performance through Integrated Acoustic Planning and Noise Reduction Strategies

The past decade has brought trends like downsizing, outsourcing, and hoteling to the office workplace. Closed office settings have changed to open plan environments that promote teaming. The traditional workplace is quickly disappearing and companies trying to accommodate these trends need the skills of an interior design professional to help them deal with challenges like increased noise that negatively affect worker productivity.
 
Good office acoustics is a key contributor to work performance and well-being in the workplace. The ability to find quiet times and places is essential to support complex knowledge work, while the ability to have planned or spontaneous interactions without disturbing others is necessary for team work and relationship development.
 
Having speech privacy is necessary for confidential interactions and work processes. “Acoustical comfort” is achieved when the workplace provides appropriate acoustical support for interaction, confidentiality, and concentrative work. Sound travels from one space to the next through numerous weaknesses in the built environment. The sound of speech passes the union of ceiling and the wall and through lights and air conditioning components. The energy of sound finds every opening no matter how small.
 
Especially with today’s new ways of working, it is difficult to imagine a superior workplace which does not take acoustic performance into account. Furthermore, an acoustically uncomfortable workplace won’t represent the best value since unwanted distractions inevitably degrade the effectiveness of theirworkforce. Perhaps because sound is not visible, we tend to underestimate its importance.
 
The incorporation of appropriate strategies and products for reducing noise in the workplace will continue to be an important part of designing and creating work environments where productivity is supported and enhanced. Indeed, if the past is any indicator, the incorporation of sound acoustical principles of design into work environments will be even more important in a future business climate where competition is even more keen, productivity more valued, and privacy more difficult to achieve and sustain during developing information and communication technologies dependent on the human voice. Design professionals are poised to make significant contributions to this issue.