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Learn about acoustics and its importance of it at home. Choose these 4 materials to improve your Home Office Acoustics.
Are you tired of hearing the voices outside your room? Have you been scared of some sounds in the middle of the night? Fortunately, with the right use of materials and design, we won't longer have these problems. Sound is an important variable in our rooms but we rarely think about it because is something that we don’t see. However, acoustics are very important for our comfort and our productivity while working alone and in meetings.
Sound is a wave that travels to a medium when a source emits vibrations. Humans receive these waves and are processed by the brain.
Before we start, we need to understand what is sound. According to the oxford dictionary, sound is "vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear". Basically, they are waves that travel through a medium. These waves can come from instruments, voices, animal sounds, or anything that emits a noise. When we are in space, the way they behave it's completely different from the open space. In an architectural environment, acoustics behave differently as there are other elements like walls, ceilings, doors, and other elements that may disturb the wave.
Image 1 : Sound Traveling without disturbances
Image 2: Sound reflecting causing reverberation
To have good sound acoustics in architectural environments, especially in Home Office, Offices, Theatres, Studios, and Tv Rooms, we need to take into account these 4 elements to make a comfortable and productive space.
🚫No Reverberation: This phenomenon happens when the sound persists after the source has been stopped. In practical terms, is when your brain perceives that there is a continuous sound like mumbling even when the sound is no longer emitted. An example of this happens in Bathrooms, have you talked to someone who’s in a bathroom and you actually know that person because it sounds different? This same phenomenon can happen in our home office if we don't have the right materials, so it might sound like you are in a bathroom in your meetings and you definitely don't want that.
🚫No Echoes: We might get confused with reverberation and echo. However, they are not the same. Echo happens when so, you hear the same sound twice or more. With reverberation, you can hear clearly the sound but like a noisy background. Both of them cause discomfort and we want to avoid them.
✅Sound Absorption: There are different materials in the world and they all pose different properties and structures. Some materials, reflect sound waves and others absorb them. To avoid reverberation and echoes, we need to absorb the wave sound. When we are in an environment where we need to talk, narrate, present, or chat, we need to have materials that absorb the sound, so the voice can be heard clearly by the other ones that are listening. On the other hand, when you want to give a concert that involves instruments, it's best to use reflecting materials that amplify the sound!
4. ✅ Insulating / Sound Proof: We may think that isolation or soundproof and sound absorption are the same, but they are completely different. With soundproof we want to isolate the outside noise from space. With sound absorption, we want to improve the inside acoustics of a given space
Having into account these previous concepts, we suggest you include the following types of materials to improve your Home Office Acoustics:
Woven textiles: Found in Blankets, Pillows, Curtains, Carpets, Fabric Chairs, and Sofas.
Plants: Soil and plants also have the property to absorb sound. (Learn the benefits of having plants at home)
Mineral Wool / Fiberglass: Find in Acoustic Panels and Acoustic foam. These can be placed on ceilings and walls.
Wood: Dense wood like Plywood
Well, that’s all for now! We hope you learn something new and start improving the acoustics of your Home! Remember you can contact us if you want to renovate your Home Office, we have professional design services for you! Book Below 👇
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We keep investigating and learning more about our customers' and users' lifestyles, in order to design spaces that genuinely adapt to people. That is why we would like to know more about you!
1. Did you know acoustics are important for comfort?
2. Have you felt sound discomfort?
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