ANU Research School Social Sciences (RSSS)
sound thinking
The Australian National University (ANU) Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS) in Canberra is a world leading research centre that engages with social problems to shape debate and policy agenda on a national and international scale.
Being an inherently multi-disciplinary research community dedicated to lively discussion and debate, deep design consideration was given to building a space where over 560 people and their visitors would genuinely want to be. One where any natural tensions between working quietly and individually, were beautifully and thoughtfully connected with contrasting moments of serendipitous discourse and collaboration.
This 11,700 square metre, 7 story Hassell-designed, Construction Control constructed building includes open plan offices,
teaching and learning lectorial spaces, single person offices, meeting rooms, wellbeing spaces, as well as a unique central courtyard and reception areas.
Traditional office partition construction approaches focus on guaranteeing speech privacy no matter what the ambient sound level, which leads to over-engineering overly expensive 'slab to slab' partition walls.
Working in conjunction with acoustic consultants WSP, 45dB designed installed and calibrated an holistic sound masking system that ensures the privacy of cellular offices without the need for any building slab to slab partitioning.
Speech privacy is not only dependant on the wall 'stopping' ability, the ambient sound level in the adjacent room also plays a part.
Sound masking not only guaranteed floor to ceiling partitioning and ceiling performance, but also streamlined the entire interior fit out process.
— Tom Hardy
sounds good
By controlling minimum ambient sound levels using sound masking 45dB enabled the use of a more cost-effective partition design from floor to ceiling only, helping achieve a high level of privacy between adjoining rooms — whilst saving construction cost, time and materials. Plus all works in the ceiling void above the suspended ceiling were completed in one go, requiring no further access thereafter.
The new building breathes fresh life into the RSSS community, helping stimulate the kind of big thinking we all need to help change the world we all live in for the better.