Acoustic Associates

Building Bulletin 93 (Acoustics of Schools)

Since the implementation of the 2003 Edition of Approved Document E of the Building Regulations, Requirement E4 from Part E has required that:

“Each room or other space in a school building shall be designed and constructed in such a way that it has the acoustic conditions and the insulation against disturbance by noise appropriate to its intended use.” 

“…. the normal way of satisfying Requirement E4 will be to meet the values for sound insulation, reverberation time and internal ambient noise which are given in Section 1 of Building Bulletin 93  ”The Acoustic Design of Schools”,  produced by DfES”.

BB93 provides a comprehensive guide for architects, building control officers, building services engineers and others involved in the design of new school buildings.

At Acoustic Associates, we have considerable experience in assisting design teams to ensure that appropriate acoustic conditions are achieved in schools and any educational facilities.

This involves (depending upon the project):

• Ambient noise surveys
• Design of the building envelope, including glazing
• Advising on ventilation and building services
• Sound insulation between teaching spaces
• Reverberation control within teaching spaces
• Speech intelligibility

Remedial Treatments

We are often approached about solving existing problems in:

• Sound insulation issues
• Room acoustics (excessive reverberation & poor speech intelligibility)
• Building services (ventilation noise - self-generated and transference of noise from one room to another)
• Rain noise and external ‘break-in’ sounds
• Impact on surrounding areas (‘break-out’)

To download a copy of BB93, please go to our links part of the menu and click on BB93.

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