What the pandemic taught us about sound and working environment

As we returned to the office after two years of remote work during the pandemic, we could begin comparing working environments in a way that many had not done before. Alongside the latest research, this has led to some interesting insights shared by Svensson here.

Designing sounds / What the pandemic taught us about sound and working environment

Covid-19 affected both how and where we (with office based roles) performed our tasks. Upon returning to the office, we expected more flexible solutions than before regarding where we would carry out our work.

Issues in activity-based offices

According to a 2021 survey, most now prefer to work from home between one and three days a week. Having become accustomed to remote work—with fewer disruptions in the working environment—people now notice more clearly the deficiencies in the design of today's office environments and therefore do not want to be in the offices as often as before.

Primarily, offices with open-plan layouts and activity-based offices give rise to disturbance-related problems, as they rarely have workspaces that support concentration and undisturbed work. This leads us to the subject of the sound environment.

Current measures and directives

When it comes to working with the sound environment in today's offices, the majority of methods focus on reducing unwanted noise. Both research and legislation have concentrated on how sources of "unwanted noise" can be managed and how we are disturbed by the sounds.

The pattern is clear: Official regulations such as the European Noise Directive and technical guidelines from the EEA and WHO solely focus on reducing environmental noise and noise levels. This means that sound environments are assessed and addressed based on decibel levels.

However, how a sound environment is perceived is much more complex than just the sum of its decibels.

What we can learn

For example, research has shown that sounds that are not meaningful to the listener can be quite unpleasant (even at low decibels). And that sounds coming from sources we like are perceived as pleasant even if the decibel level is high.

Therefore, solely reducing the decibel level cannot guarantee a better sound environment in the office. On the contrary, research reports testify that overly quiet environments can contribute to feelings of anxiety and unrest. And ironically, one of the big problems in office landscapes today is that they have become too muted, while many people are crowded into a space that's too small. There, we are more disturbed by others' conversations than by noise.

A thought experiment

So, to test applying these learnings: Let's imagine designing the sound environment in a workplace together. Let's momentarily forget about sound-related directives and building regulations and instead focus on the challenge of creating a balance between different functions in the room. A balance that suits groups or teams—while also providing opportunities for individual needs.

Also, consider that we're creating for an individual experience of the sound environment that depends on a variety of factors. What type of tasks are being performed, what is the level of complexity? What are the opportunities for both collaboration with colleagues and working in deep focus alone, in one and the same place?

Considering multiple senses

Finally, we also want to advocate for what our concept, Designing Sounds, is about; that a sound environment is not just about hearing. What we hear is also influenced by other senses such as smell and touch, for example. Not to mention sight and spatial experience. Thus, we can influence people's impressions of the sound environment through the visual and spatial design of the room they are in.

Many of the "post-pandemic" insights in this article come from office design, but they apply just as much to to the design of schools, hospitals, and other environments where we share space with each other.

Even before Covid-19, we knew about levels, noise, and disturbances—but perhaps it was only when we were together again after the pandemic that we understood what everything meant.

The article is written by Martin Ljungdahl Eriksson, a doctor in informatics with a focus on work-integrated learning, who is researching the use of sound as a design element to influence experiences and behaviour.