The art of soundproof design

Sick of sound

Research has shown that the wide-ranging negative effects of noise on physical and mental health include hearing loss and tinnitus, depression and anxiety, sleep disturbances, hypertension and heart problems.

If the inescapable sound of nearby air traffic, your office heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system, the barking of a neighbourhood (or a workplace) dog, or the never-ending DIY or late-night sexcapades of an upstairs neighbour is driving you mad, even things you might dismiss as simply annoying can be bad for your health.

“Annoyance is the most prevalent response to environmental noise and may result in negative emotional responses, including poor mental health and high levels of perceived stress,” according to a study on adults living in multistorey housing in Denmark.

Noise can even impair cognitive development in children according to Dr Arline L Bronzaft, an environmental psychologist and a board member of the environmental group GrowNYC. In the 1970s she discovered that children in a classroom exposed to noise from an elevated train that passed by every 4.5 minutes had lower reading levels than those on the quieter side of the school. When the transit authority fitted the train tracks with rubber pads and the board of education simultaneously supplied the classroom with acoustic panels, reading levels rose to match the students on the other side of the building.

Bronzaft’s landmark study demonstrated that diagnosing, preventing and battling environmental noise pollution is a complex effort that requires education, awareness and a multi-pronged approach from developers, city planners, architects and interior designers, as well as building owners and occupants.

MORE: How light pollution affects our circadian rhythms

The quest for greener noise control

Acoustics has been taught in architecture programmes like London South Bank University’s School of the Built Environment and Architecture, which has been offering diplomas in acoustics and noise control since 1975. The Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore offers a two-year acoustical studies masters degree to train a new generation of architectural and product acoustic designers to take a proactive rather than merely corrective approach to designing healthier acoustic environments.

But the buck doesn’t stop with architects. The outdated practices of the construction industry contribute to much of the world’s noise pollution. Construction noise is often so torturous, in fact, that the greediest landlords of New York City have been known to use it as an eviction tactic to drive out rent-controlled tenants.

The need for healthier buildings – according to the World Green Building Council, buildings and construction worldwide account for 39 per cent of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions – has been gaining momentum in recent years. But while a multidisciplinary team of experts from the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health identified noise as one of the ‘Nine Foundations of a Healthy Building’, paradoxically, green buildings often have poorer acoustics than conventional buildings.

This is due to factors including the lower emphasis on acoustics in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and similar green buildings certification systems, and the fact that green building practices often eschew sound-absorbing building materials and sound-muffling elements such as acoustic panelling and carpeting.

The good news is that green roofs are excellent at providing acoustic insulation and that there is an emerging market for more sustainable acoustic materials with plenty of room for innovation.

Troubleshooting acoustic ills

In the meantime, because the world is already full of imperfect buildings, consultants, entrepreneurs and designers have stepped in to offer makeshift solutions to mitigate the ill effects of poor acoustics. NYC resident Gregory Scott, who suffers from hearing loss, was having a hard time finding restaurants and bars quiet enough for him to hear his dates. So he created SoundPrint, a free app that helps locals crowdsource to find quiet restaurants and bars, with a decibel reader that allows users to measure noise and leave reviews.

Acoustic consultant Alan Fierstein, the owner and founder of NYC-based Acoustilog, which has been specialising in “practical, no-nonsense solutions to acoustic problems” for nearly 40 years, offers a list of noise-related questions on his company website that house hunters might not otherwise think to ask, but which might save them from discovering they’ve just invested their life savings in an acoustical nightmare.

Homeowners should also consider the noise impact of design trends and lifestyle choices before embarking on a renovation or DIY project. Knocking down walls to convert traditional architecture into open-plan living spaces often creates unanticipated noise issues that have to be rectified later. Sliding barn doors are space saving and novel in barn-free spaces like apartments and homes, but they don’t offer the sonic insulation of regular doors, making them a poor choice for a home office, say, or a bathroom.

Open-plan offices carved out from industrial buildings and outfitted with ping-pong tables and communal spaces seem fun but are notoriously bad for productivity. Even minimalist design aesthetics that lack the noise-tamping effects of soft furnishings, curtains or walls of bookshelves can create a cacophony of unintended consequences that no pair of noise-cancelling headphones or shooting-grade earplugs could ever remedy.

These trends have created a cottage industry of modern designers who specialise in stylish, innovative acoustic retrofits to absorb, block and/or mask noise at home and at work. These include decorative acoustic wall panels, sophisticated dual-purpose acoustic lighting, and an ever-expanding range of furniture designed specifically for open-plan offices from industry leaders such as Steelcase, as well as smaller independent designers.

With varying degrees of art and science, many offer attractive sticking-plaster solutions for those unable to hire an architect to custom build the phonic ideal of the perfect home or office from scratch.