Echo Problem

Project:                      Emlyn Hughes House (Gateway Project)
Architect:                   Bowker Sadler Partnership
Main Contractor:      Leck Construction
Acoustics:               Oscar Acoustics

Emlyn Hughes House is designed to provide drama both from the exterior and interior. The Gateway Project was intended to represent the history of the town by resembling a submarine, the towns primary industry.  

Bowker Sadler Partnership endeavored to give the occupants with as much natural light as possible by building one face of the building almost entirely from glass.  The buildings floors and ceilings are constructed from poured strengthened concrete slab, so combine this with the glass walls and thin carpet tiles and there will be echo problems.

The main contractor, Leck Construction was looking for a way in which it could not only solve the echo problems, but give the bare concrete ceilings an attractive finish without the need for plaster board, suspended ceilings or numerous different trades, increasing the build time and cost. 

The top floor has a grand double height office that rises with a beautiful curved ceiling by two meters with a mezzanine floor at the higher end.  It was extremely important to the architects that they did not compromise this internal design feature in spite of a potential echo problem.

Oscar Acoustics was employed to apply one of its echo problem solving products, SonaSpray fc.  This not only solved the echo problem in one application, but prevented the need for further decorating of the concrete slab soffit.  Four large office spaces were transformed in a week.

The results, attractive decorative acoustic finish, minimum of disruption, cost and of course, no echo problem.