People standing in a bar
People standing in a bar

Thirsty work in the Pennines

Rolling green hills, picturesque villages and views for miles, Saddleworth is a place of calmness and serenity nestled in the Pennines between Huddersfield and Manchester. That’s why our project for Donkeystone Brewery in Greenfield was so important.

A new and exciting microbrewery, Donkeystone’s owners sought planning permission for a ‘taproom’ drinking establishment attached to the brewery, but were initially refused due to concerns about noise in this rural, residential area. We were appointed to measure the potential noise impacts arising from the taproom use, which involved carrying out a noise survey and noise impact assessment for the proposed use, considering the potential noise from patrons and music within the taproom, as well as noise arising from the car park.

Our work helped the brewery to determine their music policy regarding amplified music, as well as appropriate opening hours to avoid any impact on neighbouring residents.

Donkeystone Brewery

New European HQ for SAP

dBx Acoustics worked with TTSP architects and project managers Storey on the fit out of two floors in London’s iconic ‘Scalpel’ building. The project created an activity based, agile workspace for the new European HQ for enterprise software company SAP.

The client provided in-house US acoustic design standards to us as our starting point. As the standards vary from UK terminology in several subtle ways, our first task was to review the requirements and convert them into a specification that could be used to tender the fit-out using a UK contractor.

During the work we identified areas where the specification was inconsistent or unclear and helped the client to develop a more coherent and well-defined set of acoustic requirements.

The fit-out included open plan office areas, a suite of meeting rooms, breakout and cafe space and quiet working areas. Speech privacy between meeting rooms was initially challenging due to the landlord’s limitations on connections to the mullions and the desire to have an open ceiling with suspended rafts. Good design and detailing ensured that, upon commissioning, the required level of speech privacy was achieved.

As SAP’s European HQ, the fit-out also includes an open plan area which can be used as a presentation space for external clients. Excellent speech intelligibility throughout this area was a key requirement and an acoustic model of the space was created to establish the most effective quantity and placement of acoustic treatments.

The project was completed in Spring 2021. You can find out more about the HQ here.

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