Building Acoustic Design

The BAP Acoustics team advises clients at both the base building design and tenant improvement stages of commercial property construction.

As the commercial real estate terminology implies, base building refers to the state of a property prior to the tenant improvements stage and typically consists of structural elements and building envelopes, as well as all mechanical and electrical systems. Base building design, from an acoustical perspective, centres on mitigating noise from mechanical and electrical (M & E) equipment and controlling background noise from traffic in interior spaces, in addition to ensuring noise emissions from exterior building services equipment is compliant with municipal bylaws.

Tenant improvements (TI) constitute changes made within commercial property interiors to provide office accommodation such as cellular rooms and open-plan workspace. TI design includes selection of floor finishes, ceilings, partitions, air conditioning, fire protection, and security. Acoustically speaking, TI focuses on maximizing sound insulation between offices, boardrooms, audio-video conference rooms, and any other spaces that typically require higher levels of acoustic privacy and speech intelligibility. Poor construction detailing often compromises sound insulation performance, but we can help preserve design intent by highlighting acoustically important factors during the design phase.