This entailed a complete study of the acoustic aspects from concept to end of construction, to improve the external and internal sound insulation, listening comfort and internal room acoustics, and a control of technical equipment noise in the campus’ key areas such as: the conference center, offices, hotel residences, training rooms and public areas.
Each year, an astounding 20,000 Airbus employees have access to the university’s programs, developed for all levels, from production to top management teams. Therefore, the center was built with 150 hotel rooms, a restaurant and sports complex, an auditorium, and a convention & event center for 700 people. These large and complex spaces had to be considered during the design stage to optimize the acoustics and prevent any acoustic discomfort.
One of the acoustic challenges faced during the project came from the large event room that would be built next to the quiet hotel area, and other training rooms. Thus, optimizing thesound insulation performance of the building to properly block noisy spaces from leaking into sensitive areas was a key part of the acoustic design. Noisy equipment was also located close to the hotel and training rooms, so the creation of dedicated technical rooms and the careful selection of materials and positioning was paramount to significantly reduce their impact on these sensitive spaces.
Due to the proximity of the location to the airport runways and assembly lines, our team also carried out on-site environmental noise measurements to accurately simulate and predict the outdoor noise impact on the project. Façade sound insulation played a big part of our acoustic study, as our team set the acoustic objectives to deliver a comfortable building, as well as save costs on the façade materials.
Finally, our team worked very closely with the interior designers of the project, to preserve the aesthetic design intentions of the different spaces, while still achieving the BREEAM acoustic targets. A careful integration of acoustic materials into the interior design materials made the spaces sound as great as they look.
