5 Easy Ways to Improve the Acoustics in Your Workspace
Posted 2 July 2024
Many modern workspaces feature open plan layouts and bare floors and walls. Whilst perhaps being easy on the eye, it is not a combination that is particularly easy on the ears. Sound waves bounce off hard surfaces extending reverberation times and creating an echo.
Consequently, when you furnish a workplace you need to think about what you have to do to create a pleasant acoustic environment for employees with zero echo. Abstracta have put together a few tips for how you can easily improve the acoustics in your workspace.
1. Put an adequate amount of furniture in the space
Sound waves need to be broken up (diffused), and the best way of doing this is by using objects that are not soft.
A coffee table, pedestals with plants, anything that has a hard surface in the room actually helps improve the acoustics as it breaks up the sound waves.
Therefore, it is important to “fill” the space with enough furniture to create sound wave break points. In other words, the space should not be too empty.
2. Absorb sound using soft materials
Sound waves bounce against hard surfaces such as windows, walls, ceilings and floors. Use soft seating and hang acoustic panels or ceiling baffles. The thicker the material, the better the sound absorption.
Ceilings are usually more difficult to improve from an acoustics perspective.
However, Abstracta’s popular sound absorbing Lily acoustic lamp stops sound waves from bouncing onto a ceiling, making it perfect to use as a sound absorber.
3. Use walls smart – think angles!
You can create a good acoustic environment by placing tall, sound absorbing elements, such as shelving, against a wall that is at right angles to the wall where the nearest sound absorbing element is located, e.g. a thick wall or a suspended sound absorber.
Talking about shelving, fill them with books instead of ornaments. Books in large numbers work wonderfully well as sound absorbers.
4. Home offices
If you work from home, try and put your home office in a separate room.
Generally speaking, doing this will enable you to be more focused than if you were working at the kitchen table in the middle of your house. Do you make many phone calls or video conference calls?
Placing a soft material in front of you will make the acoustics of the call much more pleasant. In practice, this means positioning your desk in front of a curtain or bookshelf, or placing a table screen along the long side of your desk.
5. Staircases – an acoustic trap
In a staircase there are often several parallel walls, like a cube, where sound waves can emanate freely and create an echo.
You can counteract this simply by hanging objects on the wall surfaces that break up the sound waves.
The classic “staircase wall hanging” is no longer a common feature today, but you can make a smart decision and hang some form of textile along one staircase wall, or hang something on the walls that breaks up sound waves e.g. sound absorbing panels or small shelves.