WORKPLACE ACOUSTICS
SPONSOR: Armourcoat Acoustic
PROJECT: Project One 1 New Street Square, London
COMPANY: Hoare Lea
DESCRIPTION:
This is Deloitte’s new flagship London HQ, housing 5,500 employees. Deloitte’s philosophy was that design could affect cultural change. The sound environment would be key to successfully operating the building; directly linking to the health, wellbeing, and productivity potential for Deloitte people.
The ambitious aspiration to create this new type of inspirational workplace presented multiple challenges; demanding a willingness to embrace fresh approaches, original thinking, and the need to scrutinise acoustic quality beyond conventional guidance.
From this new kind of collaborative design and delivery process, innovation ensued, and knowledge was gained; information that can positively feed into the creation of modern,
acoustically-optimised, workplaces.
Collectively questioning standards led to altering Deloitte’s ‘Workplace design guide’, and a change to the WELL standard. Stakeholders needed to understand the end-product: How would these new spaces sound? Would there be spill of disruptive noise? Would the spaces work? A range of demonstration techniques, auralisations in particular, enabled informed decisions.
JUDGES’ COMMENTS:
The judges noted the range of challenges extended beyond those associated with open plan spaces and included an auditorium connected directly onto workspace via a feature stair and an executive director’s offices adjacent to one of the key client event spaces.
This project is an example of good collaboration with an engaged client and a very joined up approach.
It shows how acoustic consultancy is not just about using physics and numerical modelling but involves demonstrating what the client should expect as a result.