London Inc. September 2024 - 10

Upfront Workspace
BREAKING
THE SOUND
BARRIER
Ears are perking up to
the importance office
acoustics, and new
soundproofing options and
technologies are making
that comfort achievable
THE MODERN OFFICE has become
cacophonous. Sure, it
looks nice:
polished floors, open floor plans,
exposed HVAC, shared workspaces.
But it can be hell for the ears.
" Everything is hard glass,
tile,
metal, " observes Rodney Lover, owner
of Lovers atWork Office Furniture
(www.atwork.ca). " It just reverberates.
Go to any restaurant - it's so loud you
can hardly hear people across the table.
And that's from hard surfaces. "
" Everybody loves the modern look
without realizing what it does to
the sound, " adds interior designer
and space consultant Paula Burns
(www.burnsinteriordesign.com).
" Often an office can seem like a quiet
space, but as soon as you add people
and the sound starts bouncing around,
it's a changed environment. "
And these days, as offices increasingly
fill up with workers again, office
managers and designers are looking for
ways to address the problem of noise.
" Primary solutions include acoustic
panels, which can go on the wall, or
baffles that hang from the ceiling, "
Lover says. " And then there's also office
booths or pods. "
Sound-absorbing wall panels or
hanging baffles are often the first thing
Lover recommends to turn down the
volume in an office space - they are
easy to incorporate into existing
designs and can be manufactured
(often from recycled or eco-friendly
Paula Burns and
Rodney Lover
" SOMETIMES IT'S SIMPLE SOLUTIONS,
SUCH AS A BIT OF FELT ARTWORK "
-Paula Burns
materials) into just about any kind of
shape or size.
" The feedback on them has been
excellent, " he says. " We did a large
install in parts of our own showroom,
and it really cut down the noise. We're
able to walk people over and they
can immediately hear the difference
between an open space and a baffled
space. "
In today's post-pandemic office,
there's a delicate balance to strike:
managers often want a lively and
dynamic office to attract workers
back; those workers, however, have
often grown accustomed to working
in spaces they control.
What kind of sound suppression
installation an office requires will
differ, and depends greatly on how well
(if at all) acoustics were considered
when it was first designed.
10 | londonincmagazine.ca | SEPTEMBER 2024
" Sometimes it's simple solutions, "
Burns says, " such as a bit of felt
artwork. But if acoustics haven't been
considered and you're coming to it
after the fact, it's often more substantial
solutions like ceiling baffles. "
While older office spaces often call
for retrofit solutions, Burns points
out that it's now standard procedure
for office designers to address sound
suppression from the get-go. " Just
as we have budgets for furniture and
for finishes, we now have budgets for
acoustics, " she explains " It becomes
part of the discussion right up front. "
There are additional solutions to
noise levels as well. For instance,
there are standalone acoustic pods
and booths that range in size from
single-person spaces to larger fourand
six-person meeting pods that
function as an additional meeting
http://www.atwork.ca http://www.burnsinteriordesign.com http://www.londonincmagazine.ca

London Inc. September 2024

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