Therefore the point at issue is: why is acoustics not included into the above mentioned criteria? They do not take into consideration (or they barely do) the importance of good acoustics on human efficiency as well as the harm that poor acoustics causes to people. Moreover, environmental experts do not seem to have carefully analyzed the effects of poor acoustics which eventually trumps the benefits of good lighting and good air quality.

Neither have they questioned how acoustics deals with green building technologies (and vice versa) nor how acoustics influences productivity.

Another issue which requires investigation is related to the causes which determine poor acoustic in a green environment. The question is twofold:

a) is acoustic in a green environment perceived as poor (even though its standards are the same as they used to be in the past) because other parameters such as lighting, indoor air quality and thermal comfort have improved?

b) do green buildings have features that inevitably lead to an unsatisfactory acoustic environment?

Green building is still a developing field of knowledge and expertise, and there is need to investigate further on in order to asses objectives and proposes corrections for former standards.

This study aims to provide healthier and more productive environments for office occupants by proving the need of including acoustic requirements (and credits as well) into the green building rating systems.

I will approach the problem by selecting a number of office buildings with different “green” features and evaluating them acoustically.

Due to time and access constraints, only three Arup based office buildings will be taken into consideration, all of them containing open-plan offices occupied by white-collar workers.

Measured parameters will include: Background Noise Level, Reverberation Time and Speech Transmission Index. Measurement procedures will be carried out according to the following standards:

• BS 8233:1999 and ISO R1996 for Background Noise Level

• BS EN ISO 3382:2000 for Reverberation Time

• IEC 60268-16 for STI

Moreover, an occupant satisfaction survey will be carried out using a web-based questionnaire powered by FreeOnLineSurveys.com to get a clear and useful assessment of occupants’ comfort, well being and productivity. This will allow me to quantify how well a building is performing and how cross-correlated indoor environmental factors (air quality, thermal comfort, lighting, and acoustics) can influence productivity from the perspective of its occupants.

The data resulting from the acoustical measurements will be compared along with the ones resulting from the survey and they will be analyzed to identify situations corresponding to high and low satisfaction and to find out which aspects of “green” buildings still need improvement.

• Air Quality

• Lighting

• Thermal Comfort

• Acoustics

2.2 “Green” Buildings acoustical issues and technologies

2.2.1 Issues

• Architectural design trends

• Acoustical Solutions

• Speech privacy

2.2.2 Technologies

• Double skin façades

• Passive stack system

• Natural Ventilation

• Building integrated photovoltaic and wind turbines

2.3 Rating Systems

2.3.1 BREEAM

2.3.2 LEED

2.3.3 ITACA

2.3.4 Critique of BREEAM, LEED and ITACA

3 Methods and Data

3.1 Buildings descriptions

• 13 Fitzroy Street, London

• Arup Midlands Campus, Solihull

• Carlow House, London

3.2 Post Occupancy Evaluations Survey

4 Results & Discussion

4.1 Database analysis

4.1.1 Acoustics

4.1.2 Thermal comfort

4.1.3 Lighting

4.1.4 Indoor Air quality

4.1.5 Office Layout

4.2 Cross correlation and Conclusions: productivity & acoustics, lighting, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, office layout

4.3 Limitations

5 Saggio di Ricerca II: La progettazione acustica degli uffici open space

6 Glossary

7 Bibliography

8 Attachments

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BRE, “Designing quality buildings” a BRE guide, 2007

BRE, “Putting a price on sustainability” BREpress 2007

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Cowell R.J, Braithwaite P. “Acoustics and Sustainability” Proc IOA, Vol. 29, Part 3, 2007

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Heerwagen J, “Green buildings, organizational success and occupant productivity” Building Research & Information, 28, 353-367, 2000

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Institute for Environment and Health, “IEH Report on the non-auditory effects of noise” Report R10, 1997

Jeffcote S, Hrivnak J, “Assessing materials: Methods of Determing Sustainability” Proc IOA, Vol. 29, Part 3, 2007

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Jurdy B, “Acoustics of Green Buildings with Open Plan Offices” in Northwest Construction, 2006

Kang J, Yu C, “Lifecycle analysis of acoustic materials in residential buildings” Proc IOA, Vol. 29, Part 3, 2007

Kurtz A, “What Does Sustainable Design Sound like?” Sustainability Strategy Presentation, August 2006

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Spagnolo R, (a cura di) “Manuale di Acustica Applicata” UTET

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Whitson B, “Turning green into gold” from study by Mihaly C, Webniar, Dec 2006

Willard B, “The Sustainability Advantage” New Society Publisher, British Columbia, 2002

Wilson M, Nicol J, “Some thoughts on acoustic comfort: a look at adaptive standards for noise” Proc IOA, Vol. 25, Part 7, 2003

Zagreus L, Huizenga C, “Using the CBE Occupant survey to assess facility management performance in GSA facilities” summary report, Center for the Build Environment, UC Berkeley, 2003

Zagreus L, Huizenga C, Arens E, Lehrer D, “Listening to the occupants: a web-based indoor environmental quality survey” Indoor Air, Vol. 14, 65-74, 2004