HCCAT – New Educational Building

Newly Refurbished Educational Facility.

Acoustic South East working with Morgan Sindall

Acoustic Associates Sussex Limited worked with Morgan Sindall and others to provide detailed input into a new purpose-built school building and concurrent improvements/refurbishments to other educational buildings on the development site. We were part of a multi-disciplinary team facilitating the project through from design to the award of planning permission, subsequent construction and handover. As a new build educational facility there were a lot of aspects to be considered from an acoustics perspective which included the following:

• Assessing external sound pressure levels to quantify the soundscape and what level of attenuation would be
needed for the building envelope.
• Providing working plans as to wall separations between teaching spaces, corridors, counselling areas, SEN
rooms, library spaces, music rooms, science blocks as well as circulation spaces, sick bays etc.
• Use of noise modelling software for propagation as well as building materials software for the likely
performance of certain build ups.
• Assessing proposed Monodraught ventilation systems to determine how much sound energy is generated
from plant inside the classroom environment under specific ventilation conditions.
• Considering numerous teaching spaces from special educational needs (SEN) to larger science blocks and
teaching accommodation.
• Determining the relevant performance for party walls and floors to ensure that teachable areas have the
required soundscape as a new build space
• Concurrently reviewing and inputting advice into refurbishment elements within the existing site
infrastructure.
• Review of drawings to identify improvements in terms of acoustics.
• Reviewing and making recommendations for centralised plant and boiler rooms and any mitigation
measures to avoid onward flanking transmission between wall structures.
• Calculation and assessment of rain noise against both flat roof constructions as well as domed rooflights.
• Review and consideration of roof mounted plant and how this might impact nearby residential properties.
• Review of ductwork and silencer specifications for provision of room side fresh air and how this might
impact the room acoustics.
• Review and assessment of fume cabinets for dedicated spaces for science.
• Review of internal materials inside classrooms to ensure appropriate listening conditions and reverberation
times (RT).
• Review of external Multi Use Games Area(s) (MUGAS) and how these might impact nearby residents and
what, if any, mitigation measures might be needed.
• Being able to respond to last minute changes in materials, design, recommendations and narrative from East
Sussex County Council
• Attending site to carry out post completion testing for both internal ambient noise levels as well as
reverberation times for both classrooms and SEN areas as part of the final site handover back to the school