Background
Vision is a major trade union in Sweden. Their headquarters is located at Kungsgatan in Stockholm and consists of 6000 m² office space over several floors. The office utilizes an open plan, mostly activity-based workplace model.
Assignment
When Vision moved into their newly refurbished HQ they quickly discovered a new challenge in their open-plan offices: It was too quiet. The social areas felt awkward and the silent ambience made occasional speech from colleagues highly distracting for others trying to focus. Furthermore, the members counseling department, who’s job is predominantly telephone based, experienced big problems with distraction and unwanted overhearing between colleagues. Efterklang was approached to mitigate the issues and create a better sound environment.
Result
After a thorough pre-study of the issues we composed an out-and-out package of measures:
- Changes in furnishing
- Headset hardware recommendations
- Acoustic materials
- Sound design customized for the spaces different purposes
- Sound masking in open-plan offices
We designed and installed lounge inspired background music for social areas, nature based sound masking in focus areas and relaxing forest sounds in selected places. The result is an activity-based office that now has an activity-based soundscape, and changes were met with great appreciation by the staff.
