Sound is a wave that travels in all directions when you clap your hands. These waves are caused by the movement of air molecules closer together and then apart. If you are in an open space, the sound will continue to travel without encountering any obstacles and will eventually disappear. However, if you are in a closed space, the sound will be reflected off the surfaces around you. Some of these reflections reach your ears. Our brains are very good at decoding these reflections. Even if you have never seen the place you are in, you can learn a lot about its size and structure through these reflections. If the surfaces of the space you are in, such as the walls, ceiling, and floor, are all made of reflective surfaces, there will be more reflections and the space may become uncomfortable for you. We call this disturbing situation noise.
Noise
Noise is an environmental element that sometimes disturbs and distracts us, and sometimes we are not aware of it but it tires us from the inside. In contrast, designers and interior architects are more focused on eye-catching works and ignore this situation. It’s time to start working that appeals to the ear. 4walls4you took on this task and created the Acoustic Wallpaper series, which is the first in the world with a non-woven base, textile surface, and the highest “αw” value.
Communication
The transmission of information called communication takes place between the sender and the receiver. No matter how well the sender conveys the information or how good a listener the receiver is, if there is an acoustic barrier in the environment, efficient communication will not take place.
Education: Studies show that teachers’ speech intelligibility decreases by 50% from 4 meters in classrooms. This means that students miss every 2 words. This does not mean that they are not receiving the necessary education. However, they have to work harder to catch what they miss because of the hum. The biggest cause of this is the echo time. The average sound echoes for 1.2 seconds in a classroom. According to our work, this sound level can be reduced to 0.4 seconds with Acoustic Wallpaper.
Restaurant: We prefer restaurants to be eye-catching places, but when we are in such places, if the environment is crowded, we are struggling to make our voices heard to the person sitting a step away from us. This is due to the fact that the restaurant has a design that appeals to the ear, not the eye.
Office: Our topic is office environments. We spend most of our day working in offices. There are workspace planners, but where are the workspace sound planners? In fact, the working environment is the place where a person should be most productive during the day. However, the noise level creates a very big obstacle to this. It makes the employee less productive for the employer. It causes employees to enjoy teamwork less and disrupts their concentration, thus disrupting their productivity.
Living Areas: The last topic I want to touch on is our permanent living spaces, our homes. We have interior architects for our homes, but where are our interior space sound designers? In fact, what I want to talk about here is invisible architecture. This design is about the experience, not the image. The purpose of Acoustic Wallpaper is to create an environment that is both visual and sensory. Sound-insulated environments in our homes make us feel better, be healthier people, develop our social behaviors, and be more productive people.
Conclusion
Do not forget to check out the Acoustic Wallpaper series for a more delicious, quieter, and healthier life.
