Noise Control and Speech Privacy Guidelines for Office Building Design

Noise control is required to provide an indoor environment free from the stress of unwanted noise and to provide a measure of speech privacy. There is a need for the development of guidelines to be used by building designers to ensure that user comfort is taken into consideration. The focus of this paper is on the development of guidelines as advice to designers to facilitate systems replacement in new buildings and the introduction of new systems in the future. Some aspects of noise control and speech privacy in various locations in office buildings have been addressed. Responses from 92 design professionals (architects and engineers) in nine countries to a questionnaire on noise control and speech privacy in office buildings have been summarized in the form of guidelines for use by building designers.