Client
Kiwi Income Property Trust - ASB Bank
Location
Wynyard Quarter, Auckland
Completion date
2013
ASB North Wharf is situated at the Wynyard Quarter, in a prime working waterfront location in Auckland. The building is a landmark office development that is leading edge both in workplace design and sustainability.
Innovative workspaces, social hubs and a range of meeting room spaces are arranged around a central light-filled atrium space. Open bridges and staircases connect working floors vertically and horizontally. The workplace design encourages flexibility, teamwork and mobility.
Our Brief
Marshall Day Acoustics provided complete acoustic consulting services on this building including:
- Open plan office acoustic design
- Meeting room acoustic design
- Airborne and impact sound insulation
- Speech privacy
- Noise control of mechanical services
Challenges
Traditional approaches to the acoustic design of open plan offices were not appropriate for this building. Instead of using absorptive ceilings and screens between workstations, a vibrant open workplace environment was achieved with “speech babble” masking noise, exposed slabs and exposed services.
The atrium space acts as flywheel allowing activity noise generated within the building to fill the office floor plates with an unintelligible babble. This allows people to communicate across short distances, but at increased distances voices merge into the reverberant babble, minimising distracting sounds.
Outcomes
The architecture of the ASB North Wharf building reflects the ASB business principles of “transparency”, interaction and collaboration. Since moving into the building email traffic has fallen by twenty-five percent and scheduled meetings have reduced by thirty percent, as a direct consequence of a building that encourages movement and interaction, supported by an effective acoustic environment.
