Investigating the Effect of Indoor Soundscaping on Speech Privacy in Open Offices
Regular paper
Bilkent University
Wednesday 3 june, 2015, 15:20 - 15:40
0.6 Madrid (49)
Abstract:
Open-plan offices are believed to promote communication and interaction
between
employees. However, these spaces are also associated with the lack of
privacy and
uncontrolled noise levels as auditory environment of an open-plan office
cannot be
improved by simply decreasing the sound levels. When speech privacy is taken
into
consideration, the lack of sound does not always mean a positive working
environment. This research considers speech privacy in relation with the
auditory
environment, using indoor soundscape approach. Aim of this research is to
explore
how employees perceive different sound sources and understand if they can
contribute to speech privacy. In order to achieve this goal, objective
measurements and subjective surveys are conducted at two open planned
offices.
Their acoustical characteristics are analysed using on-site measurements and
ODEON
Room Acoustics Software, Reverberation Time (RT), Equivalent Sound Pressure
Level
(Leq), Sound Transmission Index (STI) are measured. In order to reflect
employees’
perception of the indoor soundscapeing, Grounded Theory method is used.
Semi-
structured interviews are conducted with 30 employees to develop a
conceptual
model. The results have shown that, in a relatively quiet office space (Leq
=
49.60 dBA), without any intentional masking sounds, participants are
uncomfortable
with the lack of speech privacy. More than half of the participants (60%),
perceive computer fan, keyboard and mouse sounds as positive sound sources.
Semi
structured interviews have also revealed that %83 of participants are in
favour of
using music as background sound.