Acoustics
in Education
Until 2003 no
legal
requirements or official guidelines were in place to help deal with the
noise
problems and poor acoustics found in the majority of our schools. We
now find
that many educational buildings are failing to provide acoustic
conditions that
are appropriate for teaching and learning. The current new school build
programme is the largest in 100 years and the importance of good
acoustics in
rooms of all sizes is now being addressed via official guidelines in
the form
of Part E of the Building Regulations Building Bulletin 93, known as BB93.
BB93 aims
to ensure that appropriate acoustics are provided for teaching and
learning in
all new schools. Primary concerns are speech intelligibility between
teachers
and pupils in the classroom. The acoustics within open plan learning
and social
areas are also highlighted as well as reduction of external noise from
adjoining areas that can cause interference and distraction. Acousti Pro™ are actively
involved in
the provision of both built in and retrospective solutions for good
acoustics
in accordance with BB93. To date we
have worked both independently and alongside architects on a number of
new
school build projects as well as solving acoustic problems in existing
buildings.
Most buildings, especially those
containing modern day ‘spacious’ architectural
designs, use glass, steel and
concrete in their construction. These materials provide hard reflective
surfaces that cause excessive reverberation resulting in a disruptive
acoustic environment. Acousti Pro™
solve these issues with
a wide and expanding range of both modern and traditional
‘architectural’
acoustic treatment products that are designed to work effectively and
in
harmony with all types of building.
If a room is too reverberant,
due to parallel and hard, reflective surfaces or external noise levels
are too
high, speech intelligibility is reduced and pupils are unable to hear
and
understand their teachers. In addition to this, poor acoustic
conditions in the
classroom can have significant negative effects on a child’s
concentration,
learning and development. This also affects teachers who strain to be
heard
often raising the level of their voice which further exacerbates the
problem
and can even lead to health problems. The requirements in BB93 have been well researched and are
substantiated by experts in
the field of acoustics and also by large numbers of real world studies
which
show noise within the classroom and external noise to be a major factor
in
reduced number, letter and word recognition – especially in
younger children.
BB93
contains guidance on all aspects of acoustics in education as well as
sound
insulation, noise control and room design for speech and music. If you
are
working within the guidelines of Part E of the Building Regulations to
meet the
required acoustic standards specified in Building Bulletin 93: Acoustic
Design
of Schools, or tackling the issue of poor acoustics retrospectively in
the
refurbishment of existing buildings, Acousti
Pro™ can provide everything you need from simple
plain speaking good advice
to an entire facility design. We have proven solutions for Acoustics,
Vibration
damping and Sound proofing.
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