Weston Town Hall Refurbishment
Weston Town Hall - (Credit: Alan McFaden)
A complete refurbishment of the existing town hall which contained extensive open plan spaces centred around a large atrium, with no separating walls.
Project Information
This complete refurbishment of the existing town hall contained extensive open plan spaces centred around a large atrium, with no separating walls. Therefore noise transfer between desks, working groups and from floor to floor was a critical factor in acoustic design.
Project Details
| Location: | Weston Super Mare, UK |
| Architect: | North Somerset Council |
| Contractor: | Willmott Dixon |
| Contract Value: | £9.7M |
| Completion Date: | 2012 |
Project Information
Going over and above standard guidelines, MACH Acoustics focused on analysing the spread of sound pressure level and the speech intelligibility over distance, rather than purely focusing on reverberation time in the sense of traditional design. MACH used extensive computer modelling and produced video/audio simulations (‘auralisations’) to demonstrate the acoustic benefits in respect of the aesthetic views of the architect, the budget of the project, the low carbon design initiative and the satisfaction of the client. This allowed us to evaluate the level of acoustic separation between desks and groups in large open plan areas, with and without noise mitigation methods including desktop screens and acoustic soft treatment.
Our Services
- Reverberation time assessment.
- Computer modelling of noise propagation with open plan spaces and the atrium.
- Auralization / Videos
A multitude of 3D acoustics models were created to assess several factors. These looked at various scenarios, looking at the quantity and placement of treatment above desks underneath the waffle deck concrete soffit, and screens between desks. It was considered by the design team that a combination of the screens and the initially proposed amount of suspended treatment was the most cost effective solution.
As an acoustic consultancy we understand that it is our client and end users that benefit or suffer from the result of our work. We therefore prioritize the importance of good communication. The illustrations within this document have been taken straight from our acoustic report and were complimented by a set of auralisation videos that were distributed to the design team and client. Links to these three videos are provided (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3).
