ABSTRACT
Noise is one of the most onerous factors affecting the quality of the work environment in open-plan offices. The troublesomeness of noise in such spaces manifests in distraction and loss of concentration in workers resulting from conversations held by others. For that reason, acoustic conditions in open-plan office rooms should minimize the perception of speech sounds by proper shaping of the acoustic properties of the room furnishings and equipment. Room acoustic parameters most important in view of specific functions of open-plan offices are the room absorption (as per Polish standard PN-B-02151-4:2015), the A-weighted sound pressure level of speech at the distance of 4 m, the speech spatial decay rate, the distraction radius, and the privacy radius (as defined in EN ISO 3382-3:2012). This chapter presents methods for determination of these parameters and their assumed acceptable values, illustrated with results of research carried out in the Central Institute For Labor Protection—National Research Institute in fifteen open-space offices. It turned out that the parameters of special importance for premises of that type failed to meet the normative criteria in all the examined cases. An example of a typical open-space office is cited in which the key parameters were measured both before and after acoustic treatment involving numerical simulations and deploying a number of acoustic measures to meet the requirements of applicable standards.
