Matter and surface
Acoustic panel
classroomofficehospitalauditoriumdining hall
A piece of porous or perforated material placed on ceilings and walls to absorb part of the sound that bounces around.
What it solves
It lowers echo and background noise so the voice can be understood. In classrooms, offices and dining halls with metal roofs and hard floors it brings back calm.
Today
Calculate how much absorption the room needs and distribute the panels on the ceiling and on facing walls to cut the echo between them. Choose materials that withstand tropical humidity and can be cleaned.
Common mistake
Thinking about the panels at the end and sticking a few wherever there was space, without calculating how much they absorb or where the sound bounces.
Tomorrow
Panels can be made with local fibers such as timber, bamboo, coconut fiber or reclaimed fabric. They can be replaced without construction work. A quieter classroom helps children with hearing loss and teachers who need to protect their voices.
Fact An American classroom acoustics standard calls for a maximum reverberation of 0.6 seconds in furnished classrooms of less than about 280 cubic meters.
Where it comes from
- 1Harvard University Cambridge, United States, 1895
Wallace Sabine measures the echo of a lecture hall with hundreds of borrowed cushions and finds that one person absorbs as much sound as six cushions. - 2Boston Symphony Hall Boston, United States, 1900
With Sabine as adviser, it is one of the first halls designed with measured acoustic principles.
Masters
- Carlos Raúl Villanueva Aula Magna of the University City, Caracas, Venezuela, 1953
He hangs from the ceiling and walls 31 timber clouds designed with Alexander Calder that absorb, reflect or project sound depending on their angle. It is the acoustic panel turned into a work of art.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Matter and surface
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.