Acoustic of open spaces - toward a new French standard
Regular paper
Saint-Gobain Ecophon
Tuesday 2 june, 2015, 13:40 - 14:00
0.9 Athens (118)
Abstract:
Taking in to account noise disturbance within office space construction and
planning is now a major objective for the experts who participate to
international
standardization groups. In 2012, the international standard ISO 3382-3,
specifying
the method of measurements of acoustic properties of open plan offices, came
into
effect. Today, the standard is used by the majority of European acoustic
consultancy firms. Nonetheless, the progress made by this standard presents
some
limitations, according to the experts from AFNOR S30D. Notably, the norm does
not
differentiate between the different types of existing open offices; similar
comments could be made in reference to the French standard NF 31-080 used by
most
of the French acoustic consultancy firms.
The objective of the new French standard that has been in progress since 2007
is
to define different types of open plan offices, then to outline for each of
them
the indicators of evaluation for the acoustic quality, to define target values
and
to detail the measurements procedures. To achieve this, an analysis of the
types
of activities and their characteristics has been done. This first allowed us
to
outline four different types of offices: call centers, project spaces, front
desk
areas for public reception and administrative spaces. For each category,
analysis
of the relation and the communications enabled to define relevant acoustic
descriptors. Next, field experiments, laboratory tests and numerical
simulations
were defined. This article presents the context of the international standards
concerning open spaces, including the new French one, and, on the basis of
examples, the different steps used to reach the desired objective.