When we talk about designing commercial spaces, we normally think of colours, furniture, furnishings, and the clients (of course!) However, as someone not from the design and build industry – in short: a layman, we hardly ever take sound into consideration when it comes to architecture and interior design. The sound emitted, absorbed, and reflected within a space plays an important role in designing a range of different buildings, residential and commercial. Architectural acoustics allows designers to study these sounds and design buildings (and interiors) in a way that they are managed ideally.

The Importance Of Architectural Acoustics In Designing Commercial Interiors

Commercial spaces often include a range of different people and objects emitting a variety of sounds. This makes it important to design the interiors in a way that the sound reception is clearer and people are not exposed to loud noises.

Architectural acoustics allows interior designers to use furniture, furnishings, paints, and other articles that reflect, absorb, and transmit the sound waves effectively. Right from designing the interiors of offices and stores to hotels and restaurants, it is important to control the manner in which sound is distributed and received by people within the designated areas. For example, a conference room needs to be designed in a way that there is a minimum reflection and adequate absorption of sound to make communication more effective. On the other hand, designing the interiors of a club requires the right amount of sound absorption to prevent the place from getting too loud.

Here are a few reasons why architectural acoustics are important for designing commercial interiors:

Ensuring Clear Communication

Effective communication often holds a lot of importance in commercial spaces. Architectural acoustics allows designers to ensure that people are able to hear each other clearly, facilitating effective and seamless communication.

While designing an office, it is important to use articles that absorb the right amount of sound to make the employees hear each other effectively. Similarly, designing places like coffee shops demands the use of furniture and furnishings that facilitate hassle-free conversations amidst the surrounding disturbances.

Improving Concentration

Especially while designing offices, architectural acoustics helps the workers concentrate better while working. When there are a lot of people working and machines making sounds all around you, it is important to have cabins and cubicles that allow employees to work without getting distracted easily. While it may not be possible to avoid unwanted sounds completely, architectural acoustics allows interior designers to minimize unwanted distractions.

Better Reception Of Music

While designing commercial spaces where music plays an integral part, architectural acoustics is used to ensure better reception of sound. The science of sound is often used while designing concert halls, auditoriums, theaters, discotheques, bars, and clubs.

With the right application of acoustics, you can add to the overall ambience of a place and improve the experience of people visiting. Here, interior designers work with materials and articles that control the reflection and absorption of sound to enhance its quality when music is played on the premises.

Factors Important For Designing Commercial Interiors Using Acoustics

Architectural acoustics is a fairly elaborate science and requires a lot of precision when using it to design commercial interiors. Architects and designers need to work in close association to ensure that an area is designed to manage sounds the right way.

Here are some of the most important factors that need to be considered while designing commercial interiors using acoustics:

Reverberation

Also known as resonance, reverberation is a phenomenon of sound being prolonged and persistent due to multiple reflections. Even when the source of sound has stopped emission, sound waves keep reflecting from surfaces within a closed area such as furniture, walls, etc. resulting in reverberation.

Sound Absorption

Different materials absorb sound to different degrees, thereby reducing reverberation. Sound-absorbing materials are therefore used for designing spaces where the reverberation needs to be kept low.

Here are some of the most common sound-absorbing materials and articles used by interior designers for designing commercial spaces:
•                    Acoustic foam
•                    Acoustic fabric panels
•                    Sound-absorbing underlayment (typically for flooring)
•                    Fiberglass insulation
•                    Drop-ceiling tiles
•                    Acoustic polyester panels
•                    Sound-absorbing room partitions

Architects and interior designers ensure high sound absorption while designing spaces like conference rooms, lecture halls, and other spaces wherein conversations play an important role. Using sound-absorbing materials allows designers to make the sounds emitted within the room clearer and free from unwanted muffling.

Sound Insulation

Sound insulation is a phenomenon that helps surfaces and materials prevent sound from passing through them to the other side by absorbing it. Here, sound waves traveling at different frequencies are absorbed by insulating materials, essentially blocking the sound from traveling to the other side of the concerned material.

To facilitate sound insulation, spaces are designed considering the average level of sound in the room and its difference from the level of sound prevalent on the outside.

Architects and interior designers use sound insulation while designing recording studios, sound-proof cabins in offices, and commercial buildings where noises from the inside are prevented from disturbing the people outside.

Designers commonly use acoustic insulation boards with fiberglass panels to facilitate sound insulation and prevent sound transmission between adjacent rooms/cabins. Moreover, acoustic boards or acoustic panels are used on walls and ceilings for insulating sound and preventing it from leaving an enclosed space.

It is therefore important to use the right amount of sound insulation while designing commercial interiors to prevent the sound from escaping an enclosed space.

Acoustical Panels

In addition to sound insulation, architects and designers also use acoustical panels to prevent any noise from outside of a cabin or a room to disturb people within. Fiberglass black acoustical ceilings and wall liners are often used to keep the noise made by HVAC units against roofs or exterior walls away from the people within.

Acoustical panels can be seamlessly integrated with interior designs to make the interiors sound-proof according to the specific requirements and preferences of the clients.

The Final Word

Architectural acoustics is a science that is not commonly talked about while designing commercial interiors. However, it impacts the interior designs, environment, and the overall mood of a place by controlling the sounds within. From influencing the quality of conversations to evading hypertension, the right use of acoustics is needed for creating efficient commercial interiors.

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Views expressed above are the author's own.

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