Is Acoustic Comfort Possible in Modern Office Design?
It seemed like such a good idea at the time. Tearing down partitions in commercial office spaces across the country to promote collaboration amongst workers that would increase team work and productivity, and help to encourage a whole new world of ideas.
This was the office of the 21st century, a new way of working. What could possibly go wrong?
The Revolution!
What we now know from numerous studies of workers who spend their nine to five in an open plan office is that most are actually feeling less productive, more stressed and generally less happy.
While these spaces can help in promoting collaboration and communication amongst workers, the benefits are far outweighed by the negative impact of increased noise and a lack of privacy.
Lack of sound privacy is now the biggest frustration for office workers. Employees are struggling to concentrate, and the constant noise is leading to a lower job satisfaction and decreased performance.
Employees are taking things into their own hand to block out the excess noise. Take a look around any office in Australia and count the number of people hiding in their noise-cancelling headphones. This may suggest the open office has had the opposite impact of what it was supposed to.
In spite of all this, it looks like the open office is here to stay. Many companies, however, are now exploring new ways of providing workers with privacy and reduced noise, while still encouraging collaboration.
Criterion Partitioning Systems
Criterion are leading the way in revolutionising partitioning for commercial offices spaces. The Criterion Industries solutions provide partitioning systems that bear little resemblance to the partitions of days gone by.
Through combining modern and stylish designs with high performance acoustics, Criterion Industries partitioning systems have been designed to provide maximum flexibility, empowering architects, builders and contractors to revolutionise tomorrow’s workspace.
Check out the benefits of different partitioning options in this infographic ‘Achieving Acoustic Comfort in the modern day office
To find out more about acoustic comfort in the office, and revolutionary partitioning solutions, download this free white paper from Criterion Industries ‘Realising Acoustic Comfort in the Modern Day Office’
