Nithya Caleb is the Editor of The Construction Specifier Magazine, the Official Magazine of CSI. This article originally appeared in The Construction Specifier. Subscribe for your own free print copy of this must-read magazine for construction professionals.
The recent prevalence of open offices, including address-free workstations and collaboration spaces, is a response to the need to accommodate an increasingly transient workforce. These wide-open spaces are typically designed to create more dynamic interactions among employees at all levels of an organization.
However, in recent years the elimination of walls and private offices combined with the continued use of hard surfaces such as concrete or wood floors, glass walls, and low-profile desks has led to the rise of new challenges related to confidentiality and acoustic comfort, resulting in an increase in the demand for acoustical solutions.
In an article for The Construction Specifier, Michael McCoy of Focal Point sheds lights on some innovative materials that are delivering flexible solutions, addressing sound management and reducing echoes and reverberation issues, while enhancing other aspects of the interiors, such as lighting and aesthetics.
Recently, some architectural luminaire manufacturers have introduced integrated acoustic lighting systems to address acoustics needs as well as illumination requirements.
These flexible systems leverage the ceiling plane and often integrate existing building components such as sprinklers or speakers to simplify the specification, sourcing, and installation process. They are typically available in a variety of form factors—linear baffles and cloud systems are the most prevalent. Resolving more than reverberation issues, these systems can deliver optimal light levels and enhance the aesthetics of a space while offering flexibility to meet its budget requirements.
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MasterFormat
09 51 00–Acoustical Ceilings
09 58 00–Integrated Ceiling Assemblies
26 51 00–Lighting
UniFormat
C1070–Suspended Ceiling Construction