Color supporting acoustical performance
Vibrant colors used on ceilings in rooms with high sound reflectance can enliven the senses and energize a space. Accents of red, yellow, and blue, primary colors stimulate the brain, such as in a middle school’s cafeteria, a boutique retail shop, an office breakroom, or a fitness center.
Organic colors and natural finish patterns also can be matched with sound-absorbing ceiling designs to make institutional spaces feel more like hospitality. Consider wood grain finishes on the ceiling of a medical clinic’s waiting room or charcoal color panels to emulate a night sky in a university’s reading room.
Ceilings combining high sound absorption with soothing shades of soft brown, light pink, powder blue, mint green, and pale yellow immerse visitors in quiet, calming spaces. This visual and acoustic pairing can be critical for rooms designed to alleviate stress and promote well-being. Key examples include rooms for parents to feed nursing babies, or neurodiversity sensory rooms providing a safe place for people to reduce anxiety.
An optimal acoustic experience supports people’s wellness and productivity in all interior spaces. As part of the room’s design and material selection, remember to specify a ceiling panel with a noise reduction co-efficient (NRC) appropriate to the space. In a classroom full of students, a restaurant packed with diners, or an open office with busy employees, ceiling panels with high NRC ratings—0.90 and higher—are needed. This sound absorption increases speech intelligibility by decreasing reverberation. Even in quieter spaces, such as private offices or patient rooms, ceiling sound absorption is essential for speech privacy and intelligibility.
Many types of buildings and rooms must now comply with more high acoustic absorption criteria in North American standards, guidelines, and rating systems, including:
• The Facilities Guidelines Institute (FGI), which prescribes the design and construction of healthcare facilities, requires “all normally occupied healthcare facility spaces shall incorporate acoustic surfaces.”;
• The WELL Building Standard, typically used for commercial office buildings, requires “sound reducing surfaces” for the health of the cardiovascular, endocrine, and nervous systems of building occupants; and
• The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) emphasizes “student learning suffers in acoustically poor environments,” where “excessive noise and long sound reverberation negatively affect speech communication.”
These and other building guidelines, like the Canadian and U.S. Green Building Councils’ Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification programs, recognize the opportunity for materials and products to contribute to the safety, health, and wellness of people and their surrounding environments.
As buildings re-open in the post-pandemic era, owners and occupants share an increased concern for IAQ. Specifying ceiling systems meeting Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Environment’s GreenGuard Gold certification for low-emitting products will fulfill criteria for LEED, WELL, Collaborative for High-performance Schools’ (CHPS’) certification, and other programs.
Further supporting IAQ and healthy building goals, stone wool and metal are not organic and, therefore, do not provide sustenance to mold, mildew, bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. Ceilings composed of organic fibers and water-based materials must add a biocide, fungicide, or antimicrobial to help protect against mold and mildew. With the added chemicals, these materials may become a potential pollutant contributing to poor IAQ.
Regardless of their colorful finish, stone wool and metal ceilings also do not absorb water, moisture, or humidity, are sag-resistant, and are easy to clean without harsh chemicals. In general, ceilings should require minimal cleaning.
In specialized applications—such as cleanroom applications, or in healthcare and wellness centers requiring infection control—color choice is more limited. Classic white ceilings convey a sterile environment and should be specified to meet the room’s unique conditions. For example, ceiling panels in Bacteriological Class B1 and B5 applications may need an air-tight backing membrane, sealed edges, and be able to withstand rigorous disinfection more frequently.
Additional performance considerations for ceiling materials include:
• resistance to heat, flame spread, and smoke spread;
• durability and longevity, reducing the need for repair or replacement; and
• recycled content and recyclability at the end of its useful life.
With a nearly limitless palette of colors for acoustic ceiling panels and suspension systems, designers and specifiers have the power to create interior spaces that motivate, calm, comfort, and inspire. Working closely with the ceiling manufacturer, project teams ensure the selected system appears and functions as specified to support the building owner’s long-term value and the occupants’ lifelong health and well-being.
Diana Hart, CSI, IIDA, serves as manager of architectural sales and business development for Rockfon North America, part of the ROCKWOOL Group. Working with architects, designers, and specifiers, she helps in selecting advanced acoustic ceilings and wall solutions to create beautiful, comfortable spaces. She can be reached at diana.hart@rockfon.com.
