Roughly 12 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean every year. It’s a sobering thought and finally it seems to have the governments attention but some of us are already committed to the environment, with Soundtect one of many companies who uses more than 70% of recycled polyester to manufacture their acoustic solutions.

Soundtect panels are a third-generation product having been recycled from post-consumer plastic to exhibition carpets before their next use as sound absorbing panels.

Given that only a mere 5% of the echoes produced in a room can be absorbed by hard, reflective surfaces and the remaining 95% will continue to carry through the space, creating an unpleasant background noise that pushes conversations to raise up, compromises privacy and reduces well-being, acoustics are now more than ever a vital part of any scheme.

Recently Soundtect supplied their Freestyle product for a large open plan office in white city Leading venture builder, Blenheim Chalcot partnered with Imperial College London to develop the building for its scheme, Scale Space. With the concept of providing a community for innovators to flourish, Scale Space’s primary function is to give businesses access to the right people, along with the services and the room they need to grow.

The project benefits from a dynamic colour palette, selected to reflect the multitude of brands that Scale Space accommodates. Office Principles set out to create an experience for the end-user and so the project evolved to become more than just a space, reflecting the spirit and ambition of the overall project and Scale Space’s positioning.

“The workplace engagement activity and the early design stage was crucial to achieving the best outcome for the client and ensuring that the space would live up to the expectation that surrounded it. Given that, we dedicated an inordinate amount of time to those early parts of the process to ensure that every voice was heard, and the vision could be met.”

Aspects were altered to improve the flow of space, including the movement of the main staircase. The ground floor suites were given over to more traditional serviced office space, which meant that a lot more partitioned areas had to be created. The first floor remained a co-working area, while other floors were designated for the occupation of some of the larger businesses in the community.

The building, a new modular construction, then required a complete CAT B fit out with furniture. A central collaboration area was included, FBCA (Food Beverage Community Amenity), along with supporting zones for pitches, informal training and events. These spaces, known as ‘Pitch’ spaces, connect to the main FBCA area and blend aesthetically, with folding doors to enable an extension to the space as required. A broad mix of products were used across all areas, adhering to the environmental principles of SKA to meet Scale Space’s sustainable agenda.

With the scheme very much open plan and full of hard surfaces, an acoustic treatment was absolutely essential to the well-being and productivity of the office so Soundtect were brought in to supply their Freestyle product as baffles for the entire ground floor.

These super light acoustic panels offered the right amount of absorption and focal point to compliment the scheme and cope with the inevitable reverberation the space would throw out, and are regularly specified on projects needing a treatment that would enhance the building both visually and reduce the noise audibly.

Freestyle is one of three sustainable ranges of acoustic treatments available from Soundtect. With 10 years behind them, Soundtect are a familiar supplier in the commercial sector with many large schemes in their portfolio and plenty of options for treatments for both walls and ceilings, offering a diverse collection of finishes and applications for any scheme.