Oct 14

CMS Danskin in this month’s Education Design and Build Magazine

EDB October BB93 FeatureCMS Danskin feature in October’s Education Design and Build Magazine, with an informative piece about the replacement for BB93. Here’s a brief extract:

There has been a lot of talk recently about the replacement for Section 1 of BB93, the constructional standards for acoustics for new school buildings. Unfortunately, the majority of this talk has taken place amongst acousticians, soundproofing specialists, building control officers and the Department of Education, but has yet to reach the ears of many in the construction industry.

BB93 (or Building Bulletin 93, the Acoustic Design of Schools, to give it its full title) was conceived as a means of satisfying requirements E4 of Approved Document E of the Building Regulations with regards to sound insulation, reverberation times and indoor ambient noise in schools.

Broadly speaking, BB93 covers:

  • Insulation from external noise.
  • Insulation between rooms through floors, walls and partitions.
  • Acoustic design of rooms for speech, music and for pupils with special hearing requirements.

The insulation aspect of BB93 deals exclusively with sound transmission and sets out clear standards for precisely how much noise might be allowed to penetrate a classroom or other learning environment. The acoustic design component of the regulations deals with the more complex issue of reverberation. Although distracting noise from external sources or adjoining rooms is problematic and must be addressed, reverberation is particularly detrimental to speech recognition and, therefore, a crucial factor in learning.

So, precisely what was wrong with BB93? On the whole, nothing…

You can read the whole article in this month’s Education Design and Build Magazine. We’re on page 53. Click here.

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