Offices
Acoustics are an important attribute of commercial office building design. Noise is probably the most prevalent annoyance source in offices, and can lead to increased stress for occupants
Speech privacy may be an even more important effect than noise. Yet acoustics in most cases do not receive the same level of design attention as thermal, ventilation and other architectural and engineering considerations.
Office sounds can be steady (such as the continuous hum from a ventilation system or a computer), intermittent (sound which comes and goes), or impact (sounds of short duration, such as the snap of an electric stapler).
A variety of sounds can be heard in the average office- anything from the sound of a ringing telephone to the background hum of a ventilation system. Some sources of noise can be minimized with minor adjustments. Others, such as the noise from the ventilation system, may require major alterations to building systems.
Sources of equipment-generated noise include telephones, photocopiers, computers, or other office equipment. Equipment-generated noise is usually transient and the sensitivity to equipment sounds varies from person to person. For example, the noise generated by running a photocopier may not annoy the operator, but it may be distracting to people in adjacent work spaces.
