DIFFERENCE OF ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT BETWEEN PRIVATE OFFICE ROOMS AND OPEN-PLAN OFFICES

摘要

Open-plan offices are often preferred because of better space efficiency, flexibility and facilitation of communication. However, surrounding speech sounds can become very disturbing and jeopardize confidential conversations. These drawbacks indisputably reduce work performance both directly and indirectly. These drawbacks may prevent the positive features of open-plan offices to realize in certain job types requiring high concentration and confidentiality. The aim of study was to determine how workers (N=31) perceived the acoustic environment in private office rooms and in open-plan offices. This study was carried out in a company who moved from an old office building to a modern new office building. The workers were mainly professional workers doing independent office work. Acoustic measurements and questionnaires were carried out before and after the relocation. Noise, especially speech and other human-borne activity sounds, was the most distracting indoor environment problem in the open-plan offices. Noise level did not explain the increased acoustic distraction in the open-plan office but increased speech intelligibility between workstations. The use of coping strategies increased after the relocation. Self-rated loss of working time due to noise doubled after the relocation. Unexpectedly, cooperation and information flow did not improve in the open-plan office. The results suggest that open-plan office is not recommended for professional workers because their work requires concentration and speech confidentiality.