Managing sound in education environments
With the recent halt to at-school learning, the education sector is taking advantage of the downtime to plan re-modelling and improvements. Classrooms with poor acoustics not only have a negative impact on students’ ability to comprehend speech, but also impact their ability to read, pay attention, concentrate and behave appropriately.
When designing an education space with good acoustics, here are some fundamentals to consider:
Buffer zones
Add structural buffer zones between noise sensitive classrooms.
Reduce reverberation
Reduce reverberation in hallways.
Desk arrangement
Arrange desks at an angle around the room, rather than in rows.
Reducing noise from moveable furniture
Add soft tips or pads to the bottom of tables and chairs.
Speech-reflecting zone
Add a speech-reflecting zone with reflective ceiling tiles above the area where the teacher regularly stands.
The importance of light fixtures
Replace noisy light fixtures.
Learn more about sounds in Baux’s Book of Acoustics
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