Acoustics

The design of building spaces is to be in accordance with the MQP Acoustic Design Standard.

 LINK TO ACOUSTIC DESIGN STANDARD

The following components are to be assessed by the designer with consideration to individual space types.

Design Noise Level

Noise Emittance is defined by;

• Steady-state noise intrusion from external sources:
  • Road (and in some cases, rail) traffic noise
  • Industry
  • General environmental noise including external school activity
• Intermittent noise intrusion from external sources:
  • Individual rail pass-bys
  • Aircraft flyovers
  • Rain noise
• Steady-state noise contribution of internal sources:
  • Mechanical ventilation
  • Air conditioning
• Intermittent noise intrusion from internal sources:
  • Hydraulic services

Noise Emittance

Noise Emittance is defined by;

• Noise emission from activity (e.g.: use of a room or space)
• Noise emission from a mechanical services noise source (such as air conditioning unit or fan)

The extent to which noise emission will have to be considered and the extent of acoustic treatment required will depend upon:

• Whether noisy activities take place in a room or space.
• Whether the room or space is naturally ventilated and therefore windows and/or doors are expected to be open whilst noisy activities are taking place.
• Room facade construction and orientation of 'acoustically weak' facades relative to noise-sensitive receivers.
• Distance to noise-sensitive receivers
• Whether mandatory noise emission criteria are required to be satisfied at nearby boundaries and land uses.

Room to Room Noise

Room to Room noise is defined by;

• Consider a room or space as a noise source and determine constructions (predominantly walls) required to control noise emission to an adjacent space
• Consider a room or space as a noise receiver and determine constructions (predominantly walls) required to control noise intrusion from adjacent spaces.
• Airborne noise and impact (footfall) noise

The extent to which room to room noise control will have to be considered and the required acoustic rating of constructions between adjacent rooms will depend upon:

• Whether noisy activities take place in a room or space
• Whether a room on an upper floor has a hard floor surface (when considering footfall/impact noise)
• Whether a room is sensitive to noise intrusion
• The ambient noise level in the receiver room
• Whether the construction between adjacent rooms includes an operable wall, a door, a glazed section or other 'acoustically weak' construction.

Where a door, glazed element, or other acoustically 'weak' construction component is proposed between rooms, acoustic engineering advice shall be sought.

Room Acoustics

Room Acoustics is defined by;

• Reverberation time
• Reverberant noise control
• Speech intelligibility (Speech Transmission Index, STI)
• Late acoustic reflections

The extent to room acoustics parameters will have to be considered and the extent of acoustic treatment required will depend upon:

• The use of the room or space and therefore an appropriate reverberation time for the use
• Whether or not noisy activities are expected in the room
• Whether or not speech intelligibility is fundamental to the use of the room, e.g.: general learning areas
• Whether the room or space is a specialist performance or recording or teaching space, or with large
• Dimensions and where late acoustic reflections are considered a risk